Bridgestone in a rush to make road safety plea as school bell sounds

With children going back to the classroom and rush-hour traffic resuming, Bridgestone has urged motorists to take extra care on the school-run. The tyre manufacturer said that the latest TyreSafe research suggests that 10 million vehicles could be driven with at least one tyre under the minimum legal limit of 1.6mm. Coupling this with the new school term and an expected spike in traffic and Bridgestone believes that the time has never been more critical to carry out some simple tyre checks – or even drive to a selected garage to get a professional technician to take a look.

Bridgestone expressed its disappointment about the recent TyreSafe research, which revealed more than 27 per cent of tyres were already illegal when they were replaced. That equates to more than one-in-four of the 37 million cars and light commercial vehicles.

These figures arrive on the back of Bridgestone’s own primary school safety findings from September 2014, which reported that a third of parents (35 per cent) had witnessed near misses outside the school gates while more than half of primary school parents (55 per cent) were worried about their child’s safety near roads on the school run.

Bridgestone’s YouGov survey, which questioned more than 1,000 parents, also revealed the following:

• Two thirds (67 per cent) saw other parents crossing the road without holding the hand of their child
• A third (38 per cent) admitted to parking outside the school gates, not in designated areas
• One quarter (26 per cent) stated they were more likely to drive their children to school in Autumn/Winter
• Over three quarters (86 per cent) were more likely to drive their child to school in bad weather

Bridgestone’s managing director Robin Shaw said: “We were certainly alarmed by Tyresafe’s tyre research, which confirmed our fears that there is a poor attitude towards tyre safety among UK motorists. A vehicle’s tyres are the only safety critical component in contact with the road and if illegal, then the effectiveness of the braking and steering systems are significantly compromised.

“These statistics, coupled with our own from September 2014, make for worrying reading. With the new school term beginning and our roads becoming busier once again, we wanted to urge motorists to have a think about their tyres, spend a matter of minutes checking them and reducing the risk of any accidents.”

Stuart Jackson, chairman of TyreSafe and Bridgestone’s business development director, said: “The Tread depth survey results are a concern. Figures from the Department for Transport** show that dangerous tyres are the largest single contributory factor in accidents resulting in casualties of any vehicle defect – including brakes. If the number of casualties from tyre-related incidents is to be reduced on our roads, the UK’s motorists need to change their attitude to this primary safety feature and carry out regular checks to ensure their vehicle’s tyres are roadworthy.”