road safety Archives - Page 30 of 35 - Tyrepress

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Bridgestone Safety Campaign Gets Underway in India

With an annual road toll hovering at around 100,000 deaths – one of the highest in the world – Bridgestone’s launch of its global ‘Think Before You Drive’ campaign in India is perhaps timely. The campaign, first launched in 2005 and now operating with the backing of FIA member clubs in more than 60 countries, will hopefully help Indian motorists identify the main causes of serious or fatal crashes – and implement simple safety measures before heading off.

24th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Art Contest Receives Record Entries

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Using this yardstick, Bridgestone has no less than fifty five and a half million safety and environment related words on its hands: the company reports that at least 55,676 European primary school children participated in its “dreams at heArt” children’s drawing contest during 2009, more than 35 per cent more than last year. Children from twenty-five countries – including for the first time the Baltic States, Slovakia and Romania – sent in drawings of their thoughts and aspirations on the theme “Safe Travel in a Greener World”.

22nd June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Emirates Driving Institute Brings Safety Message to Sports Fest

Road safety – in particular the use of seatbelts – is to be the main theme presented by the Emirates Driving Institute when it attends Barbican Turbo the Middle East’s custom, tuning and motorsports festival organised by United Business Media from the 8-10 of October at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Abu Dhabi.

Road safety is a particular concern in the United Arab Emirates where figures released by the Abu Dhabi Health Authority and the Ministry of Interior indicate 424 people were killed on the roads in Abu Dhabi and a total of 1,071 were killed country-wide in 2008. To combat this issue the Emirates Driving Institute aims to achieve excellence in the field of driver training and road safety and believes a reduction in road traffic accidents can only be achieved by improving the current skills level and knowledge of the driving population; something which they plan to do while at Barbican Turbo.

10th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Fundraisers Cycle for Transaid in Zambia

Acting on the company’s nomination of Transaid for Bridgestone’s charity of 2009, two avid cyclists from the tyre manufacturer’s Midlands base are gearing up to cycle 420 kilometres across Zambia. Graham Hooper and Gary Grove are undertaking the Transaid Cycle Zambia Challenge, which will see them tackling all terrains – including off-roading through traditional Zambian villages – to help raise awareness and vital funds for the charity’s projects across the country.

The pair are hoping to raise £4,000 through donations from colleagues at Bridgestone, as well as family and friends, which will support Transaid’s work in Zambia, improving infrastructure and building local knowledge on the importance of road safety. In addition to the cycling challenge a number of other fundraising activities are to be organised by the firm throughout the year.

8th May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyre Dumping Up 2,300%, Says South African Union

South African trade union NUMSA has spoken out against the importation of cheap Chinese manufactured tyres into the country, reporting on the phenomenon in a press statement that also addressed road safety concerns. According to NUMSA, China’s tyre dumping activities into the country has increased 2,300 per cent from 108,039 in the year 2000 to 1,057,312. These tyres often arrive under-invoiced, NUMSA adds, and therefore attract less duty, something that has caused industry production to drop by about 40 per cent.

6th April 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Stuart Jackson Appointed TyreSafe Chairman

Vredestein UK managing director, Stuart Jackson has become chairman of TyreSafe. According to the tyre safety organisation, he replaced former chairman Rob Beddis as the public face of TyreSafe during February and will continue Beddis’s work in raising awareness among motorists of the importance of well maintained tyres in road safety.

25th March 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone: ‘Think Before You Drive’

Bridgestone Americas has officially unveiled its new online driver safety program at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show. With the launch of the new website, all of Bridgestone Americas’ consumer road safety programs are unified under a single banner — Think Before You Drive — a driver education initiative of the global Bridgestone Group. While the site is designed to educate all passenger vehicle drivers, it has a special focus on younger drivers, incorporating all of Bridgestone’s consumer safety and education programs under one comprehensive umbrella to further reinforce the importance of smart driving, the company said.

The company said that ThinkBeforeYouDrive.org provides tyre safety lessons and driving skills to help reduce preventable tragedies on the road. The site highlights the variety of consumer safety and education programs the company runs or sponsors, such as SafetyScholars.com, Mario Andretti’s Real Information On Safety, Driver’s Edge, Car Care Academies and TireSafety.com. The site offers visitors a variety of interactive services including video games, quizzes, videos, vehicle maintenance tips and more, according to the company. (Tire Review/Akron)

12th February 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Expands “Dreams at heArt” Programme

Following record results in 2008, with more than 40,000 entries from 20 European countries received, Bridgestone plans in 2009 to expand its “dreams at heArt” competition to the Baltic States and Romania. In addition to prizes, says the tyre major, this year winners will again receive school visits from Bridgestone staff, who will arrive armed with a playful educational programme on road safety and ecology that includes an authentic GP2 racing car.

The “dreams at heArt” children’s drawing contest aims to encourage children to start thinking about road safety, and invites them to express their creativity in drawings or paintings. The competition is open to all primary school children in Europe up to the age of 11 years (split into 3 age groups, 0-7 years, 8-9 years and 10-11 years) and features a different theme for each annual edition.

28th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Nigerian Motorcyclists Wearing Scrap Tyres to Avoid Helmet Law

Nigerian motorcyclists have stumbled upon a novel new use for discarded tyres. These end of life rubber items join dried fruit shells, saucepans and paint pots as a handy substitute for those wishing to dodge a new law in Nigeria that makes the wearing of helmets compulsory. Tyre scraps, affixed to the skull with a piece of string, are proving popular with bikers who find helmets too expensive and with passengers who, to quote a Reuters news article, fear they “will catch skin disease (from the helmet) or be put under a black magic spell.”

8th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Truck Tyres Provide Perfect Play Surface in Cheshire

A Cheshire school has found an environmental solution for its new playground and basketball court with the help of Bridgestone UK. This solution comes in the form of recycled truck tyres; the granular rubber material made from the tyres covers the 500 metre square surface is said to be soft, safe, porous and able to be coloured – in other words, says Bridgestone, an ideal material for sports and recreation. Work started at Easter and was completed in June.

25th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

TyreSafe: Cold Weather Tyres Offer Safer Alternative

With Winter upon us TyreSafe is advising motorists to consider fitting cold weather tyres in order to improve road safety. Slippery roads accounted for 55 per cent of road traffic accidents in which road environment was a contributory factor in 2007, according to Department for Transport (DfT) figures. In November 2007, the DfT recorded a spike in personal injury accidents as drivers were caught out by the drop in temperature and increased rainfall, with 16,559 accidents recorded, nearly 700 more accidents than at any other time in the year.

20th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Uninsured and Unlicensed

Stop slouching and listen up, lad. I’ve got something to say to you….Not only do you have a bad attitude, a stupid haircut and dismal taste in music…you’re also most likely to be uninsured and unlicensed! This is how a certain relative of mine – let’s call him Uncle Bruce – would inform our nation’s younger drivers of the findings in a recent report from road safety organisation IAM. The IAM itself, of course, tackles this important issue in a much more constructive and tactful manner.

According to the report, published in the latest edition of the organisation’s Advanced Driving magazine, potentially lethal unlicensed drivers tend to be younger and male, and drive up to an accumulated 3.7 million hours a month. Neil Greig, IAM Motoring Trust director, said that a new ten-point plan is needed to prepare young people to drive safely on their own or with passengers after their test.

14th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Quebec Introduces Compulsory Winter Tyre Law

Contrary to the infamous South Park song, it seems that everything’s gone right since Canada came along; at least for winter tyres. The province of Quebec makes it compulsory for drivers to fit the seasonal rubber to vehicles by 15 December, a deadline decided upon last winter. The law was introduced when data gathered by a provincial road safety task force suggested that 38 per cent of winter accidents involved vehicles relying on all-season rubber. Only ten per cent of (or around 500,000) vehicles in Quebec at the time were found to be running on all-season tyres, rather than specialised winter products.

Meanwhile, winter radials have proved to be “hot commodities” in 2008, according to Canada East and other North American news sources. However, there has been at least one negative reaction to the new law: fifty winter tyres were stolen from a Trois-Rivieres dealership, halfway between Montreal and Quebec City. Increased demand and shortages are being reported across Canada, as head of the Automobile Protection Agency, George Iny, told national journalists: “There are already shortages, spot shortages of certain sizes for SUVs. We’re convinced by the time the Dec. 15 deadline rolls around there will be certain tires out of stock. This used to happen before. It’ll just be exacerbated by the additional demand this year.”

13th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Let There Be Light

A Shropshire company believes it could have the answer to safety fears raised by Powys County Council’s decision to turn off more than 9,000 street lights to save cash which may set a trend throughout the UK.
Council chiefs are turning off two out of three lights in non-core residential areas after it was revealed the authority’s £500,000 lighting bill was set to rise by £175,000.

But Grant Taylor, managing director of GIBS 2000 Limited and inventor of Traxeyes, believes his innovative glowing light system called Traxeyes could be the answer: “It’s ironic that cars and road users get multi million investments on road safety and pedestrians and cyclists get nothing.”

7th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Baolong Promotes CV TPMS

International News, Product News

Shanghai Baolong has embarked on a new publicity campaign promoting its commercial vehicle tyre pressure monitoring system (CV TPMS). The system is designed to permanently monitor both the tyre pressure and temperature and warns the driver in the event of a dangerous pressure loss or overheating, making an important contribution to road safety and fuel economy. The system is already available for use as a stand alone system or integrated into all classes of commercial vehicles – including trailers and semi-trailers.

Each battery-powered wheel transmitter installed inside the tyre measures the pressure and temperature every four seconds, together with the individual ID code of the transmitter, these values are sent by RF to the receiver via transceiver at 30-seconds intervals. The receiver evaluates the data, identifies the transmitter and decides whether or not the driver needs to be informed.

20th October 2008/by Tyrepress Editors