A quarter of Welsh motorists are starting their journeys with a potentially serious risk of injury by not checking their tyre pressures, says the AA.
It found 24% of drivers questioned had not checked the pressures within the last two months, although it’s suggested this should be done at least fortnightly. With thousands of families expected to take to the roads during the Easter holidays, more than a quarter (27%) could be posing a serious risk to themselves and others by heading out on potentially underinflated tyres, according to a new poll for AA Tyres, the AA’s mobile tyre fitting service.
The research found an estimated 8.1 million UK drivers haven’t checked their tyre pressures in the last two months – meaning that a large proportion could be driving around on tyres that give them a poor ride and bad fuel economy.
Of that group, over two million drivers (7%) haven’t assessed their tyre pressures in the last six months or ever, which means they potentially pose a significant danger to themselves and other road users.
An AA-Populus poll canvassed 20,033 AA members on when they last checked certain parts of their main vehicle. The research found that a much higher proportion of drivers had checked their screenwash levels (56%), windscreen (50%), condition of their bodywork (47%) and lights (43%) than the condition of their tyres – pressures (40%) and tread (36%) – in the last two weeks.
The worst culprits for failing to check tyre pressures were women and Londoners, with more than a third (35%) in both groups not making an assessment in the last two months.
Mark Shankland, Managing Director of AA Tyres, said, “It doesn’t take much misuse of brand new tyres to go from safe to dangerous. Checking tyre pressures is the bread and butter of car management, so it’s surprising that over a quarter of UK drivers have failed to do this recently.
“Sadly the accident figures bear out just how important it is to keep tyres correctly inflated – and just how quickly failing to do so can result in tragedy. On average, even if they are correctly fitted and undamaged, tyres can lose up to two pounds per square inch (PSI) every month – add in the potential of minor damage going unnoticed and you could be running on dangerously low levels before you know it.
“Failure to make these checks even after a couple of weeks can have significant knock-on effect to your fuel economy and the comfort of your drive – and not least your safety.