Tyre Awareness Week

With only one more weekend before the Easter/Anzac break, Tyre Awareness Week (7-13 April) is a timely reminder to check your car is safe for a road trip.

Police is joining more than 20 government and non-government organisations to remind motorists how important it is to choose the right tyres, check their tread depth is safe and legal, and check their inflation once a month.

During the first ever Tyre Awareness Week, police will distribute the first of several thousand key rings to help car owners check when their tyres need replacing.

They key rings were produced by NZ Transport Agency as part of a Transport Agency/Police ‘Check your car - TWIRL’ campaign, which encourages car owners to take more responsibility for their vehicles’ roadworthiness.

Police will be able to give them out at roadside vehicle checks as part of the ‘Check your car’ campaign until 2016.

“We want vehicle owners to make sure their vehicles are roadworthy at all times, not just at the one point in time when their warrant or certificate of fitness is issued,” says Superintendent Carey Griffiths, National Manager Road Policing.

Visit the Tyre Awareness Week website, www.tyresafety.org.nz to find out:

• Where to find the correct tyre pressure for your vehicle
• How to inflate your tyres
• What to look for when checking your tyres
• What to do if you find a fault.

Legally, 1.5mm is the legal minimum tread depth – any less and you won’t pass a Warrant of Fitness inspection. However, grip in wet conditions reduces significantly if tread depth gets below 3mm, so a deeper tread means a safer driver.