A new awareness campaign has been launched by TyreSafe, the UK’s tyre safety charity, aimed at all those parent chauffeurs taking their children to swimming, music lessons, drama, dance, football, karate and the innumerable other activities they enjoy. By the time their child is 20, they are likely to have spent over 3,000 hours driving them around – that’s 125 days non-stop motoring.
Parents can clock up over 30 miles a week driving their children to different clubs and hobbies or 1,500 miles a year, almost the same as driving from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back. And it’s not just them clocking up the miles, it’s their tyres too. While it’s the driver’s responsibility to check them and keep them in good condition worryingly, more than one in four parents may be driving with illegal or poorly maintained tyres.
The Home Safely on Safe Tyres campaign highlights the importance of tyres in minimising the risks to drivers and their young passengers while on the roads. It also emphasises to all drivers entrusted with child care that it is their responsibility to check the condition of their car’s tyres.
With the message You might be up for driving them there – but are your tyres? the posters, leaflets and animation advise how drivers can carry out general tyre maintenance themselves. Alternatively, drivers can ask a tyre professional to ensure their tyres’ air pressure, condition and tread depth are safe and legal.
“Taking children to the activities they love, from Guiding or Scout organisations, to football and swimming, and everything in between, is an almost daily occurrence for most parents. It’s vital that parents all remember the car tyres are the only part of the car in contact with the road, which makes their maintenance essential. Whether you are a parent, grandparent or guardian, checking your tyres once a month is the minimum that can be done to make sure we get them home safely on safe tyres,” said Stuart Jackson, Chairman of TyreSafe.
This year’s carer campaign follows the success of the 2016 awareness drive aimed at mums-to-be and the 2017 campaign aimed at drivers with toddlers.
