UK TYRE LAW
UK Law requires that your vehicle is fitted with the correct type and size of tyre required as recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. If you drive with damaged or worn tyres you could not only be fined and in breach of your motor insurance policy, but you could also be endangering lives.
To be in accordance with the law, tyres must have a minimum tread depth of 1.6mm in a continuous band around the centre three quarters of the tyre. This is the absolute minimum and tyres this worn should be replaced immediately. To help you estimate how much tread you have left on your tyres, manufacturers normally mould tread bars at 1.6mm. If these bars are visible your tyres are about to become illegal and unsafe.
For safety reasons it is recommended that you replace your tyres before the legal limit is reached, many organisations recommend at least 2mm. Obviously the more tread you have the safer you are and the quicker you will stop, the less tread you have the greater the braking distance required.
Independent braking tests conducted by the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) into stopping distances and cornering performance of car tyres on wet road surfaces show conclusively that these deteriorate noticeably, well before the end of a tyre’s life. As an example, braking tests show that significant increases in stopping distance begin to appear when tread depth falls below 3.5mm. Compared with the reference tyres used in the MIRA test, which had 6.7mm of tread, stopping distances were approximately 16% higher on similar tyres with 3mm of remaining tread and over 60% higher on those with only 1mm.
Motorists found to have a tyre that falls below the 1.6mm minimum tread depth could face a £2,500 fine and three penalty points per tyre!
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