Halfords boss issues ‘danger’ warning to drivers during Tyre Safety Month
One in seven (14%) drivers are speeding without even realising it, according to new research from Halfords and the Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff[1] University. The new analysis for Tyre Safety Month investigated the impact of worn tyres on stopping distances.
Researchers said it showed they pose similar dangers to speeding. It found that a vehicle travelling at 60mph with worn but still legal tyres (at the legal limit of 1.6mm) had the same stopping distance as a vehicle travelling at 68mph with tyres in ‘good’ condition (4mm), in the same road conditions (analysis conducted based on wet, winter road conditions).
As stopping distance guidelines were based on vehicles having tyres in good condition, and braking distance is a factor in speed limits set on roads, this effectively meant that a car travelling at 60mph (in a 60mph speed limit) was speeding by 8mph and was in fact approaching the national speed limit for a dual carriageway – 70mph.
This is particularly significant as data from Halfords suggests that currently, one in seven cars on UK roads (14% – more than five million vehicles) are believed to have illegal or dangerously worn tyres. This is based on the number of vehicles which receive tyre advisories warnings when checked into Halfords garages, showing that their tyres are illegal, or soon will be, and urgently need replacing.
The figures, from Halfords and Professor Peter Wells, are based on tyres at the legal limit of 1.6mm – so still technically road-legal. The seven per cent of all vehicles inspected that already have illegally worn tyres will have even worse stopping distances.
The impact of worn tyres on braking distances was found to increase significantly with greater speeds. While a vehicle travelling at 30mph with worn tyres is effectively travelling at 34mph, a car travelling at 70mph with worn tyres is effectively moving at 80mph, based on stopping distance. This means any car with worn tyres on a motorway and doing 70mph is effectively speeding by 10mph.
The impact of tyres on safety cannot be underestimated as they are the only thing that connects a vehicle with the road. Indeed 60% of dangerous defects (three in five) identified at MOT stage are down to tyres.
To highlight the impact of worn tyres on braking distance and its equivalence to inadvertent speeding, the below table illustrates what speed limits should be adjusted to for the one in seven cars which have worn tyres:
Speed limit
Effective speed if tyres are worn
What the speed limit should be for those with worn tyres
20 mph
22 mph
18 mph
30 mph
34 mph
27 mph
40 mph
45 mph
35 mph
50 mph
57 mph
44 mph
60 mph
68 mph
52 mph
70 mph
80 mph
61 mph
Halfords CEO Graham Stapleton said: “We quite rightly see regular safety campaigns around drink-driving, speeding, and the use of mobile phones whilst driving, and all are potentially very dangerous. But the importance of having safe tyres continues to be overlooked as a serious safety issue impacting every road user. It sounds simple, but your tyres are the only thing connecting your car – and therefore passengers – to the road. That is why Tyre Safety Month is so important for getting this important safety message across and highlighting that more should be done to show road users that they might be unknowingly putting themselves in danger.
“This research shows if you have worn tyres, even if you drive to the speed limit, you’re effectively speeding. Worn tyres take longer to stop, and that could be the difference between a serious accident, or a near miss. To help road users, Halfords is offering free tyre checks to anyone in the UK. We’re doing all we can to support road users during the cost of living crisis to keep them motoring safely. This includes our never-beaten-on-price promise on fitted tyres and offering road users industry-leading finance options to help support them with unplanned motoring costs.”