MOTORING NEWS - It's startling to comprehend that a mere 6.4mm can be the difference between life and death, but those are odds most South Africans motorists are exposed to every time they use their cars.
The tread depth on a set of brand new tyres is 8mm. The lowest permissible tread depth for used tyres in Europe is 1.6mm.
However, in South Africa the shocking reality is that a lot of vehicle owners are driving with tyre treads that are far below what we as the South African Tyre Manufacturing Conference recommend, namely 1.6mm.
This was the inspiration behind a safety conference we hosted at the Gerotek Testing Facilities. The core focus was to demonstrate the detrimental impact of tyres with insufficient tread on them in the context of our roads and driving conditions.
Our stakeholders got to experience first-hand through track modules overseen by expert driving instructors how a vehicle with proper tyres with an 8mm tread depth reacts in both dry and wet conditions as opposed to tyres with a 1.6mm tread.
The results were a reverberating confirmation of exactly why vehicle tyres are safety critical. This outcome echoes and parallels our advocating for the government to legislate 1.6mm as the legal and lowest tread depth in line with European and American standards.
In simple terms the treads on a tyre play two crucial roles. Firstly treads provide added friction between the road and surface when braking. If the tyres are worn there will not be enough friction and the tyre will slide over the road surface, failing to stop the vehicle. Secondly tyre tread patterns allow water to be expelled from beneath the tyre to prevent hydroplaning or skidding.
Major cause of road fatalities
Currently South African law according to the National Road Traffic Act stipulates that tyres not fitted with a tread wear indicator must have at least a 1mm tread depth. Anything below that figure warrants hefty fines and points rebated on licences – once the points system is implemented.
However, based our demonstrations it is unanimously apparent that 1mm is not sufficient if we are going to institute a certain degree of safety on our roads. Of the 4,500 deaths which occurred on our roads last year based on the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) annual report, 63.2% of those can be attributed to vehicle factors relating to tyre failure. Perhaps what could be considered a significant variable which is unique to the South African context our taxi industry.
