Tires: Tires, hydroplaning, conventional wisdom

Question
My grandson had two tires punctured by vandals. The tire store placed the two new tires where the damaged ones were..Left front and left rear. I thought any new tires were supposed to be placed on the front of the vehicle for safety. Is this not true?

Answer
The best situation is to have 4 of the same tire.  However, your situation requires a different strategy.  Conventional wisdom says to put the new tires in pairs on an axle and that usually the best place is on the rear axle to prevent hydroplaning from causing the vehicle from losing traction first in the rear, which is extremely difficult to recover from compared to the front.

Hope this helps.