Drivers lack basic safety knowledge – Halfords survey

Halfords’ Tyre Safety video game, 20,000 Miles in Two Minutes, launched in October for tyre safety month, was aimed to test driver’s knowledge and raise awareness around tyre safety standards. As of today, the game has been played over 7,000 times, revealing that many drivers lacked basic safety knowledge.

For example, 96 per cent of players drove with low tyre pressure; 60 per cent of players drove with tread depth below the legal limit; 78 per cent of players were pulled over by the virtual police.

Specifically, the data shows that 96 per cent of game plays (6699) saw the car driven with tyre pressure below the legal safe limit. The average player drove with low tyre pressure for 18 seconds, proving to be the biggest contributing factor to game losses.

Additionally, 60 per cent (2615) of players drove with low tyre tread depth. Within the game, the virtual police pulled over 78 per cent of players due to them driving below legal safe limits.

Slightly more controversially, Halfords’ findings reveal that the average user spent only £67 on tyre repairs, while their experts estimate a reasonable spend to be £150 – meaning drivers could be underspending by £83 on average.

Halfords Mobile Expert Operations Director, Karl Baker, commented: “It’s crucial for drivers to maintain safe levels of tyre tread and pressure all year round for both their own safety, and the safety of other road users. Our game data suggests not all drivers may be aware of what those safe legal limits are.

“While this does not directly translate into real world road data, our simulation suggests a lack of tyre safety knowledge and unwillingness to spend money on faulty tyres could pose a threat to road safety.”