A staggering 25% of cars on UK roads could be driving with one or more potentially dangerous tyre faults, according to data from a survey of over 1,500 vehicles. The survey, carried out recently by Halfords tyre technicians, involved checking more than 6,100 tyres on vehicles parked in long-term car parks at Edinburgh, Gatwick, and Manchester airports. The survey shows that over 25% of the cars have at least one tyre with excessive wear or damage. Flyers were left on windscreens to inform drivers about the tyre checks and the recommendations to rectify any faults.
Graham Stapleton, CEO of Halfords, attributes this issue to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. “People are making tough choices about how they spend their money, and unfortunately, road safety is taking a back seat right now.” The most recent Department for Transport figures show that tyre defects were a factor in 147 collisions that resulted in deaths and serious injuries in 2022. Additionally, over 10% of all MOT failures are related to tyres, highlighting the importance of regularly checking your tyres. Remember, you can use a 20p piece to check the tread depth. Your tyres could be under the legal limit if the coin’s outer band is visible.
More Powers for Workshops and Garages?
Stapleton also highlighted the issue garages face when discovering defective tyres on customers’ cars. “We have a farcical situation right now whereby a vehicle can come into a garage, be found to have illegal tyres or brakes, and yet there is nothing to stop it from being driven away,” he says. One suggestion is to mandate uploading the offending vehicles’ details to the Police’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. ANPR cameras scan vehicle registration plates and compare them to database records, informing officers when a vehicle may need investigation.
Only DVSA examiners and specially authorised police officers can issue prohibition notices. These prevent the use of any vehicle found to be defective on public roads. The police are generally responsible for the enforcement of cars on the roadside. However, the DVSA does work with the police in joint operations targeting all vehicles. So the question is, do garages and workshops need the power to issue prohibition notices or just a system to report defects to the police?
