Inflation, wear, tyres and the car crash risk

One thing that has the potential to cause car crashes is failing to maintain the tyres on a vehicle. At three penalty points and a £2,500 fine per tyre, the penalties for driving with unsafe tyres are quite severe, although not nearly so severe as a road accident could be.

The law stipulates that it is illegal to drive with tyres that have a tread that is less than 1.6 millimetres deep. While this should be seen as the bare legal minimum, most road safety organisations such as RoSPA recommend that tyres should be replaced when they reach a tread depth of 3 millimetres.

Other things to look out for are tread condition, inflation pressure (varying from tyre to tyre and vehicle to vehicle) and irregular wear.

The Road Traffic Act of 1988 states that the responsibility for ensuring a safe level of tread lies with the person driving the car. There are also other pieces of legislation and regulation that relate to the road-going safety of tyres. Two of the most important of these are:

The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 These provide general stipulations regarding the roadworthiness of vehicles, such as those relating to brakes, steering, wheels, fuel and emissions. Tyres, of course, are also an important aspect.

Motor Vehicles Tyres (Safety) Regulations 1994 Detail responsibilities relating such things as supply of tyres, worn tyres and retread tyres.

The car crash dangers of poorly maintained tyres are very real. Both worn tyres and under-inflated tyres can lead to problems like increased stopping distance, as well as poor and unpredictable handling.

Despite all these well-documented problems it is estimated by tyre safety organisation TyreSafe that 12% of all cars and vans on the UK's roads have one defective tyre, with a further 12% having a tyre tread of below 2 millimetres.

Amazingly, they consider the situation with under-inflated tyres to be even worse, calculating that three-quarters of all tyres on cars in the UK are under-inflated. While this situation is clearly unsafe, it is also expensive for motorists and damaging to the environment, coming at a cost of an extra £2 billion a year in fuel.

Vicki Butler-Henderson, presenter of motoring programme Fifth Gear warns of the dangers, "Drivers are clearly not aware of the dangers of driving a car with severely under-inflated tyres. I have recently been testing cars with under-inflated and worn tyres and the combination is potentially deadly. In a skid you become a passenger and the consequences are possible serious injury to yourself, your passengers and other road users. I would encourage all drivers to regularly check their tyres for tread depth and pressure. Your life may depend upon it!"

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