Scottish Winter Tyre Safety Campaign Results

Last year, the annual Scottish tyre safety campaign moved from its usual October slot to December, in order to accommodate the police forces, who were then prepared to conduct a series of roadside checks after a two-year absence. As usual, the Tyre Industry Council was heavily involved, providing telephone interviews and videos to local radio and TV stations. Scottish tyre retailers also publicised the event in local media.

A four day clinic programme was held in supermarket car parks and 512 cars were checked. Of these, 21.3 per cent had one or more tyres with an illegal tread depth of below 1.

6mm. The percentage of vehicles with tread depths between 1.7mm and 2mm was 29, while only 10.

8 per cent of motorists could correctly state the minimum legal tread depth. The worst example was a driver, with two young children on board, and who had two front tyres which were not only bald, but which had metal cords exposed around the complete circumference. Clinic activity was followed by a week of police enforcement with roadside checks – the first time that the police had done this since 1997.

Whether it was the result of the pre-campaign publicity or not, the level of illegal tyres found by the police was 14.4 per cent, which almost exactly matches the UK average of 14 per cent. This shows the importance of continuous enforcement, as the 2000 figure is more than 40 per cent higher than the figure for 1997 (the last time the police were involved).

Then, after a number of years of regular roadside checks, the level of illegal tyres in Scotland was as low as 10 per cent. The roadside activity also turned up its share of horror stories – one driver had just completed a 300-mile motorway journey with two completely bald front tyres, while another – this time with three bald tyres – was stopped when taking three young children to school. All in all, the police were pleased with the campaign and have indicated that they will support a similar initiative this year.