".it's worth noting that airliners use tires at hundreds of miles per hour, yet fatalities basically never happen. Things can be engineered to be arbitrarily safe."

The passengers on Air France 4590 would beg to differ, if they could. The Concorde ran over debris, and the resulting in tire damage that punctured a fuel tank, leading to a fire and subsequent loss of life.

There a plenty of aircraft incidents that are caused by tire failures. Expecting technology to prevent every eventuality is folly.