get a grip on the importance of tyre safety
Source: Times Online ()
A question. What is the most important safety feature on your car? Relatively
recent technology such as an airbag or antilock brakes, perhaps, or
something more basic, such as the seatbelt? Each has merits, but there is
one vehicle component as essential as any and arguably more so: the humble
tyre.
Going round a tight bend, the immutable laws of physics state that your car
should head for the ditch or wall on the opposite side of the road. Yet it
does not – and all because of those four footprints of rubber.
Safety can be sexy. The automotive industry’s latest innovations, such as
adaptive cruise control to stop you hitting the car in front, or blind-spot
warning systems to prevent you pulling out into someone’s path, get plenty
of column inches in the motoring press. And because they are new and clever,
they have the “wow” factor that appeals to car buyers.
Not so tyres. They have been around in broadly the same format for 100 years,
so they do not get the same attention. Checking the pressures on the garage
forecourt is a chore most motorists know that they should do but find a
reason not to. We rely on the MoT tester to tell us when the tread is low
and then moan about the cost of replacements. “Have you got anything
cheaper?” is the question most often heard at the nation’s fast-fit tyre
outlets.
All of the above is why Britain’s first National Tyre Safety Month is running
throughout October to raise awareness about the benefits of having the
correct pressure and tread – improved road safety, reduced fuel and tyre
costs, plus fewer CO2 emissions (see panel, below right).
The campaign has been organised by TyreSafe, the not-for-profit organisation
formerly known as the Tyre Industry Council. Its research shows that about
12 per cent of cars on UK roads have at least one defective even that
it is an improvement on the 20 per cent a few years ago. TyreSafe …