Tyre Safety Day alert – Ensure your tyres are roadworthy to avoid losing your insurance
Continental Tyres is advising Irish drivers for this year’s Tyre Safety Day (Monday 7th October) that neglecting your tyres could lead to your motor insurance being invalidated. This is because all motor insurance policies have a clause that requires insured drivers to maintain their vehicle in a roadworthy condition at all times.
If, following a road accident, the roadworthiness of the car is deemed to be the major contributory factor to causing the accident, the insurance company can claim that the failure to properly keep up the maintenance of the vehicle renders the policy invalid.
Contributory causes to an accident could include a range of factors, including driver inattention, inappropriate speed for the road and conditions or a mechanical issue such as the roadworthiness of the vehicles involved.
The most common mechanical issues that are listed as contributory factors in accidents would be tyres and brakes. The ‘roadworthiness’ clause in motor insurance policies obliges drivers to ensure their vehicle is fit for the road, including such crucial technical elements as tyres and brake function.
According to Tom Dennigan, head of Continental Tyres Ireland: “Tyres have such an important effect on the overall roadworthiness of a vehicle that we would always encourage drivers to regularly check their tyres – quite apart from the important safety implications of not looking after your tyres, there is the added risk of your motor insurance being declared null and void if defective tyres are the reason for your vehicle being involved in an accident.”
Independent Motor Engineer and Insurance Assessor, David Geary, added: “I know of several cases where an insurance company has invalidated a policy because a vehicle that was involved in an accident was not maintained correctly. From my more than 25 years of experience in the sector, I have learnt that it is very rarely just one item that could be deemed responsible for causing an accident, there are so many variables involved.
“However, faulty brakes and / or worn and defective tyres are generally the most common technical elements cited as key contributory factors in collisions. The onus is very much on drivers to keep their cars in a roadworthy condition and I have seen it again and again, drivers in every part of Ireland, oblivious to the key requirements of keeping their vehicle safe. I am sure it is not widely known that such levels of disregard for basic car and tyre maintenance could result in rendering your motor insurance null and void.”
Dennigan continued: “Thankfully, it is very easy to carry out a quick tyre check and this should be done on a regular basis – in truth, it can be completed in less than five minutes. In addition to checking for cuts, bumps or uneven wear on a tyre, motorists should also regularly check the air pressure in their tyres and top up as necessary.
“If in doubt, pull into your local tyre dealer, many will carry out a free tyre check and ensure your car is good for the road. Our surveys of the habits and priorities of Irish drivers continuously show that motorists here are not getting the message that proper tyre care can save you from an accident. For this year’s Road Safety Week, we are asking Irish motorists to make a new resolution to regularly check their tyres”.
Drivers can check the tread depth of their tyres very easily with the use of a €1 coin – tread depth (the amount of rubber left on the tyre) is key in enabling your car to stop when you need it to. The gold band on the front face of the coin (beside the large no. 1 and map of Europe) is 3mm wide so by inserting the coin into the centre grooves of the tyre, you will be able to see how much tread is left on your tyre.
Safety organisations and many tyre manufacturers recommend that motorists should think of changing their tyres when the tread depth goes below 3mm as the tyre’s braking ability can be seriously compromised the closer it gets to the legal limit of 1.6mm.
