We often forget from the comfort of quiet modern cars that we are hurtling along in over a tonne of metal! With blue-tooth, satnav and MP3 players blaring it is easy to become disconnected with reality until, seeing a crash brings you to a halt in more ways than one.
I was walking recently on a quiet crisp evening when the peace was shattered with a sound I’ve heard many times before; the ripping of rubber along asphalt shortly followed by a sickening thud and crackle of metal and glass coming to halt very suddenly, then silence again. I quickened my pace to find what was left of a small car snubbed up against a wall with the occupants slumped inside just visible through glassless jagged holes.
Very soon the emergency services had everything under control; the roof removed and the occupants out and away to hospital, hopefully to recover.
Thoughts were running through my head: Are they ok? Is this a car we’ve seen? Is this one of our customers? The policeman now examining the tyres shook his head in disbelief as though made weary by discovering the evidence of a preventable accident.
I couldn’t recognise the car but I am still wondering today if it was a car we had seen, was it one of the many that we advised tyres should be replaced on, only to be told “It’s been an expensive month, I’ll make them last.” Should we have been firmer? I think we do what we can but the rest is up to you as motorists. If your in doubt remember the tyres are the only part of your car that actually touches the road! For the cynics out there we only make a very small profit on tyres so my interest in this is your safety!
Tyre wear on the inner edge often goes unnoticed
I wondered if the tyres had been in better condition would this have happened. The first thing I did the next morning was to check the tyres on my wife’s car. If you would like a tyre tread checker like the one I use call in for one completely free.