Poor Tyres Mean Extra 3 Lengths In Stopping

The Age

Wednesday June 6, 2007

Helen Shield, Drive Editor

A THIRD of the cars on Victoria's roads have at least one well-worn or unroadworthy tyre, dramatically extending braking distance.

Road and safety experts behind the Automotive Safety Awareness Program say a car on well-worn or unroadworthy tyres takes an average 12.8 metres - or three car lengths longer - to stop from 80 km/h than a car with near-new tyres. Worse, at the point at which the car on good tyres has stopped, the other car was still doing 50 km/h, RACV engineer Michael Case said.

"Being hit at 50 km/h is highly likely to kill a pedestrian," he said. It could also kill the driver or passenger.

For that reason the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce, VicRoads, RACV, the Transport Accident Commission and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons are using Automotive Safety Awareness week, which started yesterday, to warn about tyres - and urge weekly adjustment of air pressure.

David Healey, TAC senior manager of road safety, said: "It's not an insignificant investment, but it's a crucial investment if your tyres are unroadworthy."

Last year the RACV and VACC conducted random checks of the tyres on 928 cars across Melbourne. Only 62 per cent of the cars had all four tyres in satisfactory condition. "When one or more tyres are unsafe, the car is unsafe," VACC spokesman David Russell said.

© 2007 The Age

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