NTDA: Foreign Registered Cars Causing Tyre Safety ‘Black Hole’

Increasing numbers of virtually untraceable foreign registered cars on British roads are causing a tyre safety ‘black hole,’ according to the NTDA. The NTDA (National Tyre Distributors Association) says there are 140,000 foreign-registered vehicles using Britain’s roads at any one time and the estimated 3 million that enter the country each year, fall outside of the UK’s registration and MOT systems which regulate vehicle safety standards.

“Our concern is that foreign-registered cars often come from countries which have less stringent testing and maintenance standards than the UK. Once they’re in the country they can drive around with little risk of detection and without having to take an MOT test or even re-register with the DVLA,” said NTDA chairman Peter Gaster.

Any car that stays in the UK for more than six months should be re-registered but in practice there is virtually no enforcement or tracking of the system. A black market of cheap used car sales that sees these vehicles change hands is thought likely to be compounding the problem.

“Tyre condition and good maintenance are absolutely crucial factors in road safety and our fear is that thousands of cars could be driving around with sub-standard tyres that are not being picked-up by MOTs or regular servicing,” Peter Gaster explained. “In addition to tread depth and inflation pressures we are concerned about tyre ageing, in which older tyres can fail, despite appearing to be sound at first glance. Our members have already identified this issue in some foreign registered vehicles they have checked, so we know there is a potential problem that needs to be highlighted,” he added.

The NTDA’s anxiety has been further raised by statistics that show a 47 per cent increase in the number of foreign drivers involved in accidents on British roads. The number of crashes involving Polish drivers has risen ten-fold in five years, from 361 in 2001 to 3,132 in 2006. Polish vehicles also make up the largest proportion of foreign registrations with 36 per cent of the total, followed by French and German vehicles.