A call for full enforcement of penalty points for dangerous tyres has been made by the boss of Continental Tyres Ireland, Tom Dennigan, writes Brian Byrne. He says the current level of enforcement in this area is way below that for other offences.
"Has any motorist in Ireland ever seen a roadside Garda checkpoint assessing the state of tyres on vehicles?" he asks. "A cursory look at the penalty point offences statistics will show that while many of the offences have been attributed to thousands or hundreds of thousands of licence holders, in particular, for speeding or mobile phone use, those for tyre related penalty points are barely in the hundreds.”
Dennigan commends the introduction of various tyre safety regulations over the last ten years. These have included the tyre-related penalty points in 2016, and more recently the National Car Test (NCT) dangerous fault classification targeting any vehicle that is presented with dangerously worn or defective tyres. But he says surveys at tyre depots across the country have shown that in some cases, cars on extremely worn and dangerously defective tyres made up more than 50 percent of customers pulling in to have their tyres checked or replaced.
“Seeing with my own eyes the state of tyres on cars that five minutes earlier were on roads and motorways across the country, I have no doubt that damaged or dangerously worn tyres are a key factor in many road traffic collisions on Irish roads," he says.
Dennigan is also calling on motorists in Ireland to get more proactive about looking after their tyres, their vehicle’s only contact with the road. "Like any piece of high tech equipment, they are subject to wear and tear and need to be replaced when they become damaged or overly worn. A very high number of motorists in Ireland do not give their tyres a second thought."
A tyre check can be carried out in a matter of minutes: make sure the tyre is inflated to the correct level, then examine for any cuts or abrasions and finally check the tread depth. If the tyre is any way badly worn or in poor condition, get along to your local tyre dealer to have them properly checked.
