TYRE SAFETY
TyreSafe has voiced its approval of new advisory messages shown on UK roads. The Highways Agency is displaying the slogan ‘safe tyres save lives’ on its overhead electronic advisory signs in bid to help reduce the number of tyre related incidents occurring on the nation’s road network. The Highways Agency’s choice of message may have been prompted by the more than 2,500 tyre related breakdowns reported by the agency in May and June alone.
Mobile tyre fitting service Grippy.co.uk is on board as TyreSafe’s newest member. Stuart Jackson, chairman of the safety organisation, describes Grippy’s sign up as “great news for car owners in and around Milton Keynes and across the country” as they will “now benefit from an even higher level of tyre safety advice when they have one of the friendly mobile tyre fitters from Grippy come to their premises.”
Motorists carry their most precious cargo when making the school run, but that’s no guarantee that the vehicles they use will be fit for duty. Time spent by Falken at Moorfield Primary School in Shropshire uncovered a high number of illegal tyres – eight out of the 25 parents’ cars checked were fitted with tyres that didn’t make the grade. The school car park check also identified one tyre with a nail in it and a further two had tyres over ten years old. In the interests of safety, Falken provided vouchers for free tyres and fitting to the first five owners with illegally worn or damaged tyres.
As October’s tyre safety month is fast approaching, road safety professionals are invited to sign up now for free campaign materials that can help them run local activities and initiatives.
Today TyreSafe unveiled a range of steps the tyre safety education body is investing in in order to promote positive tyre safety messages this year. Announced at the fourth annual TyreSafe industry briefing the suite of awareness-raising initiatives include a bolstered tyre safety month, a new campaign microsite, dealer locater, promotional videos created with both YouTube and social media networks in mind and a collaboration with the Highways Agency.
Kwik-Fit has once again found itself at the centre of unwanted attention after a BBC consumer programme accused it of recommending work that didn’t need to be done and of failing to properly carry out free tyre safety checks. On 10 July, the “Your Money, Their Tricks” programme mystery shopped 10 Kwik-Fit branches with 10 different cars. The cars, which were of various ages and models, had been pre-inspected by a forensic engineer and had been prepared in order to demonstrate whether checks had been carried out. Similar allegations were made by the BBC’s “Watchdog” programme in September 2010. But this time it was rather tackily presented, as the title of the programme and the in-show caricatures demonstrate.
TyreSafe has announced that Taiwanese tyre manufacturer Nankang has become its latest member. The road safety organisation says the inclusion of several new tyre retailers and manufacturers this year, brings the prospect of a year of record levels of participation and awareness about tyre safety issues. Nankang will support TyreSafe’s various campaigns throughout 2013 which include those targeting motorcyclists, young drivers, HGV operators as well as car drivers.
The sun is finally shining and summer – if somewhat belatedly – has arrived. Many caravanners are taking to the roads and TyreSafe has issued a reminder not to overlook caravan tyre pressure and tread depth.
Anyone predicting that Formula One’s tyre supplier Pirelli could settle in for a quieter end to the 2013 season had a rude awakening at the British grand prix. Three rear left tyre deflations in the first 15 laps decidedly different in character from the delaminations seen earlier in the season led to a lengthy safety car period. During these laps race marshals rushed to clear debris from all around the track, while FIA race director Charlie Whiting was reportedly on the verge of red-flagging the race on safety grounds. But the race continued to a highly compelling conclusion for a passionate crowd of over 110,000 after Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel rolled to a standstill on the home straight, an event that lifted the spirits of a partisan home crowd. They were denied a British victory, though home favourite Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton produced a season’s-best drive to claim fourth following his early tyre failure from first. Mark Webber also pushed the victorious Nico Rosberg close in the final stages, marking an apt last British grand prix for the popular, perennial nearly-man. The fans surrounding Tyres & Accessories near the home straight, who had been more than murmuring their discontent at Pirelli following the early tyre deflations, raised their voices to a crescendo as Hamilton and Webber improvised a tyre strategy to allow them to work their way through the grid.
Great news for lovers of grey skies and indifferent temperatures! Some experts opine that the overly wet summer we’re having may be the pattern for the coming decade. The Met Office put forward this scenario after a new weather pattern was identified in the North Atlantic, and the prospect of ten more years of wet summer weather has prompted TyreSafe to advise motorists that adequate tyre tread depth is more important than ever.
Cumbria County Council has declared the purchase of part-worn tyres “safe” on its patch following visits to part-worn tyre traders in the region by officers from Cumbria Trading Standards and the Police. The council says officers carried out 22 visits to premises in Cumbria between February and May in response to a TyreSafe survey that showed 98 per cent of examined tyres did not meet current legal requirements.
The release of 2012 statistics gathered by Bridgestone while taking out more than 28,000 free tyre safety checks in Europe provide grim reading. The world’s largest tyre manufacturer’s figures suggest that tyre care and awareness has continued to deteriorate in the region. The most alarming change from data gathered in the same way in 2011 is an increase of 25 per cent in the number of tyres either underinflated or beyond the legal limit. While the European Union has in place many strategies for making roads safer – it is a specified goal of the EU tyre label – and organisations such as TyreSafe in the UK grow both membership and influence, Bridgestone’s data suggests that the most basic tyre checks remain beyond too many of the continent’s drivers.
The diversity of TyreSafe’s membership is a major strength of the road safety organisation, and its latest recruit, tyre management software provider Cam Systems, increases this factor even further. As a supporter, Cam Systems will assist TyreSafe in a wide range of campaigns aimed at raising the awareness of correct tyre maintenance.
A 173 vehicle fleet thought to be amongst the most likely to sustain tyre damage has appointed ATS Euromaster to help maintain its tyres. Oxfordshire-based Chevron Traffic Management is the UK’s largest independent traffic management company and claims to operate in one of the most demanding environments for road-based vehicles in the UK. Chevron runs 4×4 pick-ups, vans and trucks completing daily tasks on debris-strewn motorway hard shoulders.
McConechy’s Tyre Services, one of Scotland’s oldest and largest independent garage chains, has joined the road safety organisation TyreSafe. Mainly active north of the border, McConechy’s also has five branches operating across Yorkshire under the Gordon’s Tyres banner. “With an established presence across the whole of Scotland, we’re delighted to welcome on board McConechy’s as our latest member,” comments Stuart Jackson, chairman, TyreSafe.
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