An ambitious initiative by Protyre has successfully removed 50,000 dangerous tyres from UK roads.
Protyre, which fits more than one million replacement tyres annually through an expanding network of over 80 centres, achieved the impressive feat by performing free safety checks on almost 200,000 van and car tyres during October’s Tyre Safety Month campaign.
Research by TyreSafe, the national tyre safety campaign and promoter of Tyre Safety Month, found that approximately one in four cars are likely to have at least one tyre at or below the legal tread depth limit.
Protyre also partnered with organisations like to the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and Luton Casualty Reduction Partnership to stage a number of vehicle safety events at supermarket carparks.
Simon Hiorns, retail director at Protyre, said: “This was a great effort by all involved to not only remove so many dangerous tyres, but to also educate thousands of people about tyre safety.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of tyres and how crucial they are to safety. Ultimately, they are the only part of a vehicle in contact with the road surface, so the less tread a tyre has, the less grip it will have, which severely compromises a vehicle’s ability to accelerate, corner and brake.
“However, I fully recognise that there’s more work to do in tackling the problem of illegal and dangerous tyres. The sad fact is, approximately one in four cars on UK roads are likely to have at least one tyre at or below the legal tread depth limit of 1.6mm. That translates to around 10 million illegal tyres on our roads.
“That said, I remain confident that by continuing to educate motorists, as well as working together with charities, safety groups and public bodies, such as the fire service and police, we can encourage motorists to proactively replace tyres well before they reach the legal minimum tread depth.”
Stuart Jackson, chairman TyreSafe, said: “TyreSafe applauds Protyre’s efforts to remove so many dangerous and severely worn tyres. Now that we are in the midst of winter, tyre tread depth is a particularly important factor in cold and wet conditions as the more worn a tyre becomes, the longer your car will take to stop, and the vehicle’s handling responses adversely affected. TyreSafe hopes UK motorists practise #SafeTyreChecks and ensure they are safe, legal and winter-ready.”
Protyre will continue to offer free safety checks to motorists. Anyone wishing to take advantage of the service should visit their nearest centre, which can be found on www.protyre.co.uk .
Tyre Safey Message hits the Airwaves
As part of Protyre's Tyre Safety Month Simon Hiorns did a series of radio interviews with Tyre Safe's Stephen Dolby. You can listen to it in the below video.
Garages 
Tyres 
MOTs 
