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Tyre Safety Checks – what you need to know
19 Nov 2024
In light of Road Safety Week this week, we wanted to highlight the importance of regularly checking your tyres to ensure the safety of you and other road users.
About Road Safety Week
Road Safety Week is the UK’s biggest annual road safety campaign. It aims to educate and inform drivers, and initiate a national conversation about road safety. The charity behind Road Safety Week are Brake, who aim to bring thousands of schools, organisations and communities together to share important road safety messages and remember road victims.
Brake raises funds to care for more road victims and campaign for safe roads and healthy mobility for everyone.
How can I check my tyres?
Tyre Tread Depth
The most important part of your tyres to check is the tread depth. Legally, your tyres must have a tread depth of 1.6mm across the centre three-quarters of the tyre, although it’s recommended to change your tyres at 3mm. Research shows that once a tyre reaches 3mm, its condition deteriorates much quicker and stopping distances increase dramatically.
To check your tread depth, any garage will be able to measure this for you with a gauge. You can also test it at home with a 20p. If the outer rim of the 20p coin is visible when placed in the tread groove, your tread depth is below 1.6mm and therefore illegal.
Tyres rely on the treads to be able to shift water out of the way, so as the weather gets wetter, it’s important to ensure you have a safe tyre tread depth.
Tyre Pressure
If your tyres are underinflated or overinflated, the handling and grip of your tyres will worsen, which can cause unpredictable and dangerous car behaviour.
Underinflated tyres are also more likely to deflate suddenly, and can suffer from premature wear on the outer edges, which can cause damage to your rims. Overinflated tyres give a reduced area of contact with the road, which will wear the tread depth quicker and give you less grip on the road.
Make sure your tyres are inflated to the correct PSI provided in your vehicle handbook or on your driver’s door sill.
General Wear and Tear
It’s important to regularly check the condition of your tyres, looking for bulges or rips in the outer wall and any stones or nails stuck in the tyre. Make sure your tyres are in good condition will reduce running costs and increase the tyre life.