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The danger of driving with worn tyres?

Did you know it is illegal to be driving In South Africa with worn tyres?

Besides being illegal, it presents a significant safety risk to that of the driver, passengers, and other vehicles on the road.

Tyre treads provide the necessary traction required to grip wet or dry roads with the right amount of friction to reduce the amount of slip caused by the rotating force of the tyre.

Having worn tyres means having tyres with severely reduced tread life, usually below tread wear indicators of 1.6mm or damaged tyres that have certain parts of its tread removed or increased cracks on the sidewall.

Below are some of the key factors that occur as a result of worn tyres:

  1. Increased stopping distance.
  2. Lesser water dispersion.
  3. Increased chances of aquaplaning in wet weather.
  4. Reduced road grip.
  5. Reduced steering ability due to increase slip caused by lower tread life.
  6. Higher chance of tyre blowouts, especially at higher speeds, due to excessive heat build up of a tyre, as tread grooves usually allow for airflow between them to cool a tyre.