Tag Archives: Penalty Points

High Percentage Of Tyre Treads Below Recommended Limit

Tyre As a motorist, you will hopefully be aware that the tyres on your car plus the spare wheel must have a tread depth of at least 1.6 mm to make sure that they are legal. However, the recommended minimum tread depth on a tyre is considerably more at 3 mm.

Research shows that the stopping distance increases significantly when comparing a car that only has a tyre tread depth of 1.6 mm than if the tyres had a tread depth of 3 mm.

According to a Road Safety Factsheet published in October 2017 by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Back in 2016, there were 120 serious injuries and 8 deaths due to road traffic accidents believed to have resulted from either under-inflated, defective or illegal tyres.

Well, you may find it of interest to read that some research has been conducted on behalf of the price comparison website Confused.com relating to tyre tread depths between the 27th March 2018 and the 29th March 2018 and the information revealed will no doubt concern you.

The research was undertaken in 10 cities in the UK with 100 vehicles being spot checked in each city making a total of 1,000 vehicles. The cities in which this research was carried out were Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Ipswich, Leeds, London, Manchester and Newcastle.

Of those vehicles inspected, 20.9%, over a fifth, were found to have a minimum of one tyre that had a tread depth of under 3 mm. Even more worrying was that 3% of vehicles checked were found to have at least one tyre with a tread depth of below 1.6 mm.

Edinburgh had the highest number of vehicles that had a minimum of one tyre with a tread depth of less than 3 mm – 27%. Manchester was in second place at 26%. Birmingham was in third place at 23%. Brighton and Newcastle were in joint fourth place at 21%. Bristol was in 6th place on 20%. Ipswich was in 7th place on 20%, Cardiff and Ipswich were in joint 8th spot on 19%. In 9th place was Leeds on 17% and in 10th spot was London on 16%.

In joint first place for having at least one tyre with a tread depth of less than 1.6 mm were Ipswich and Newcastle on 5%. In joint third place were Edinburg, Leeds, Manchester and Brighton with 4%. In joint seventh spot were Bristol and London on 3%. In ninth place was Cardiff on 2% and in tenth spot was Birmingham with 0%.

You may or may not be aware that there are severe penalties for being caught with a tyre that has a tread depth of below the legal limit of 1.6 mm. You could receive three penalty points on your driving license plus a fine of up to £2,500 for every illegal tyre. This in turn could lead to an increase in your car insurance premiums. So, you may wish to have the tread depth on all your tyres checked to make sure that they are satisfactory.

Whilst Defrosting Your Car Don’t Leave It Unattended

DefrostIt is that time of year when you wake up to find that there has been a severe frost meaning that you or, if you are lucky, your partner needs to de-ice the car windows before setting off to work or dropping the children off at school. Time is usually at a premium first thing in a morning and nobody likes to stand outside in freezing temperatures scraping the ice off the windscreen.

Unfortunately, a lot of people make the mistake of popping out to their car, start the engine, put the heating on at full blast and then go straight back inside their warm home leaving the engine running with the keys still in the vehicle and have their breakfast or finish getting ready for work. Why do we say this is unfortunate?

Well, a lot of motorists do not realize that, if their vehicle is stolen by a car thief whilst being left say unattended on their drive or on the road outside the front of their home, their car insurance provider will not pay out should you submit a claim as this sort of situation is not covered on the policy. Needless to say, this would be devastating news as you could be left with having to pay out many thousands of pounds to find another vehicle and still have to maintain the car loan repayments on the vehicle that has been stolen.

It is also worth noting that, if you leave your car unattended on say a public road with the car engine running, you are breaking the law and could be subject to a fine if caught by the police. Furthermore, if you do not completely clear your car windows of snow and frost before driving it then you could be subject to a fine of £60 and also receive 3 penalty points on your driving license that could also mean your motor insurance premiums going up.

So, tempting as it may be, do not leave your car unattended with the engine running to defrost the windows otherwise it could end up being a costly decision in more ways than one. Instead, why not get up a few minutes earlier than normal, wrap yourself up to keep warm and get the ice scrapper out and get rid of the unwanted snow and ice from all the windows on your vehicle.

For comprehensive cover on your vehicle give us a call on 02380 268 351 and speak to a friendly, knowledgeable member of the team who will discuss your requirements and obtain a quotation from our extensive panel of quality insurers.