Police checks to reinforce tyre safety message

Defective and badly worn tyres will be the focus of a major road safety awareness campaign being mounted by the tyre industry in Northern Ireland this month.

The Northern Ireland Tyre Safety Week is being organised in association with the PSNI who will be running tyre checks during October with the help of experts from the Tyre Industry Council - the UK's foremost tyre safety organisation.

Motorists found to have a defective tyre - having a tread depth below 1.6mm - could face a £2,500 fine and three penalty points.

The message of the campaign, which is being endorsed by all major tyre companies and tyre retailers in Northern Ireland, is that tyres are a vital safety component - in fact, the only contact with the road surface – often neglected and badly treated and only occasionally checked.

In tyre checks undertaken by the police in Northern Ireland last year some 6% of cars and vans had at least one defective tyre - a further 12% had a badly worn tyre, defined as being below 2mm. One finding from the survey, of particular concern, was that 85% of motorists asked did not know the tyre law.

The Northern Ireland Tyre Safety Campaign will be officially launched next Monday while police roadside tyre checks will start on the 20th October.

(MB)