Tyre Safety

Tyre Safety 

It always surprises me that the National Tyre Safe campaign is never as well promoted as I believe it should be.  Why do we not see television adverts regularly showing us how to check our tyres and the importance of tyre safety and being safe on the roads?  We all see adverts which remind us to check our smoke detectors and buy a carbon monoxide detector because they save lives, but no one seems to care that thousands of motorists are driving around on illegal tyres which could cause a fatal car accident!

Tyres are the only point of contact with the road.  If your tyres are illegal, have poor tread or even no tread at all, how do you think you are going to be able to break effectively to stop hitting that pedestrian, or crashing into the car that has just pulled out in front of you?

It is not just the tread of the tyre that's important but actually having the correct tyre pressure is important too and guess what if you have the correct pressure in your tyres you will actually be saving money on fuel as well.  

We all like a clean car and many people will have them regularly cleaned, or it's a weekend tradition to do it yourself or pay the kids to do it!  I just wish people realised how important it was that once a month you should also be checking your tyres. 

If the police stop you and find your tyres are illegal you will be issued a £2500 fine per tyre and also 3 points on your license!!!!! That could be expensive if all tyres are bald.

I also fully appreciate that many people don't feel confident with car maintenance and wouldn't know how to check them or can't be bothered.  That is why at our garages we encourage our customers to come and see us for their FREE tyre safety check as often as they need it.  Any of our Elite Garages branches will be happy to do this for you and we have branches across the South East of England.  www.elitegarages.co.uk for full list of branches.

I also know that a lot of local garages offer similar safety checks so it is always worth a call to ask them.

Tread depth gauges can be bought online, cheapest probably being ebay if you wanted to buy one to have at home.  But also another really easy way to give you an idea is by using a 20p coin.  Insert it into your tyre in several different areas.  The outer ridge of the coin should NOT be visible.  If you can see it then it means your tread is low and you need to seek advise from your local tyre professional.  If you notice on area or one side seems to have much lower tread than the rest then it could mean that your tracking needs doing.  If your wheel alignment is not correct then they tyres will wear unevenly and this needs correcting.  Particularly this time of year when the roads are covered in pot holes this can cause havoc to the wheel alignment and tyres so extra maintenance is needed on your car to get the most out of your tyres otherwise they will wear really quickly and you won't get your monies worth at all.  Also pay close attention to any bulges, cuts, nails and any other visible damage to your tyres.  


Visit www.tyresafe.org for some great tips on tyre safety :)