Road Safety
Sometime, in 2024, my friend and brother, Patrick Adenusi shared a video clip of a report by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) owned by Disney Company. The clip was a detailed documentary x-raying the dangers of sub-standard tyres’ usage in a developed clime such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
It captured the level of ignorance among a teeming number of persons, avoidable deaths and fatalities caused as a result. Equally captured was the level of corporate compromises, negligence, double standards, deceits by industry players as well as deception by some stakeholders similar to what some observers claim, is replicated here.
With a few days to the 2025 Christmas and end of year celebrations, I have chosen, after months of procrastination, to share this by running the documentary almost verbatim for our guide. The clip from Adenusi, was accompanied by a worrying message from him. It read; I shared this a year ago. The challenge still persists with huge consequences on the citizens. If these are happening in American and European cities where they buy new but old tires, what happens in Nigeria where we buy dead second hand tyres? He went further to note that, “Many of such tyres with short life are imported and sold here also as new. The UN Decade of Action call and campaign is a joke as this remains hidden. We have a long way to go, as manufacturers date is tampered with here while dead and expired tyres are brought in here. The worst is that they tuck in two or three tyres together.”
The already dead and expired tyres now have structural damages. Mr Adenusi, further lamented that back home, we explain away our citizens poor response to safety with the prevailing economic situations. Such a position is one of the most destructive sentiments put forward by potential mobile killers who drive around huge hazards on our roads.
Not done, he noted that political and religious sentiments also join in watering down compliance. In conclusion, he said, ’We are in for it’. He then urged stakeholders that “We must be strategic in our approach to addressing the compounding handicaps confronting us with massive awareness campaigns.”
So, what exactly was contained in this doom’s day report by ABC on tyres and the looming dangers. I have chosen to run the documentary for us to appreciate the gravity of the tyre problem in both developed and developing climes and the need for redress, especially as we hit the road this Christmas season.
Now, please read the ABC report and learn-The critical story is about cars’ tyres, and talks about numbers on the sides which tells you of tyre size; aside from the numbers by the side which also tells you about the shelf life of your tires; ignoring this could kill you.
The report cited the tragic story of a 19-year-old who went on a graduation trip to Canada but was involved in a car crash and died. Police outside Toronto, according to the report, said the crash wasn’t caused by speed or alcohol but by a tyre failure. The tyre didn’t just blow out, the tread absolutely peeled off the tyre.
This tragedy, according to ABC, led to a troubling discovery about a hidden danger in tyres sold in this country. The late 19-year-old son’s father said he discovered that the tires that he bought, which he thought were new, were actually four years old when he bought them.
It turns out that tyres can sit on store shelves for years before they are sold but there is no expiration date. Yet research and tests show that as tyres get older, even if they have never been driven off for a mile, they begin to dry up; and after six years of age, can become dangerous.
At the time of the accident, the tires in the Moore’s family van (which crashed and killed his son) were nine years old. And as seen in a test for lawsuits, when a car is travelling at highway speed and a tyre tread comes off, the car violently swerves and weaves, such that even a skilled driver who knew he was about to lose the tire tread could not keep control.
Experts described this as a hidden danger, saying that you could look at the outside of a tyre that looks good without knowing what goes inside. Even when a tire looks brand new with plenty of thread depth, it could be a 14-year old tyre.
The documentary cited a woman who barely avoided a crash when her tyre tread separated. She discovered later that the tire was 12 years old. But many others have not been so lucky. The documentary showed a warehouse described as a museum of deaths where cars and trucks which crashed when their tyres failed are stored.
It noted that there are dozens of lawsuits on people who lost their lives in this kind of a crash including some where all, including parents and children died. One of such lawsuits, uncovered a pattern of corporate neglect and government inaction on the issue of ageing tyres.
The Attorney described these actions as careless and criminal as it borders on knowing the hazards, yet allowing these products which can kill, to kill, yet doing little on tackling it. However, according to the documentary, ACB news 2020 investigations found that the auto industry has been warning car owners for years about aged tyres.
Some of them such as Ford motors even asked the Federal government to impose a six-year age limit or expiration date for tyres. And in Britain, there was a forceful warning from the country’s tyre industry; tradegroup, which said that, ’members strongly recommend unused tyres should not be put into service if they are over six years old.
This strong warning the documentary noted, is however, news to most US car owners. This is because the US tire industry maintains that, given the improvement in tire production, age is not a key factor in a tire’s performance. They described the British warning as irrelevant to the US car owners. The US experts further claim that there is no scientific explanation to back up the British position.
Meanwhile, the documentary noted that few US car owners know when a tyre was produced going by the cryptic note by the side which the department of transportation so clearly makes bolden with a four-letter number identifying code. It lamented that there was even a fourteen-year-old tyre purchased from a tire shop in America as well as a seventeen years old tyre.
It also noted that initially, the lifespan span of a tire code was crafted on the in-word side of the tire deliberately to make reading near impossible although that has changed. It went on to say that some of the salespeople seem to know that old tires can be dangerous but sold them and advised that they should be used as a spare.
Some tyres, as old as seven years, were sold as new on the manager’s clearance. Some retailers however vouch to follow industry standards for safety. Despite paying damages for the death of the Moore’s son, the same service station where Mr Moore bought the old new tire still sold a tire made in 2002, that was old, which the manager described as a huge mistake.
These tires are ticking time bombs on people’s cars. As you speed excessively, drive under the influence, drive fatigued and impaired, remember that those new tires that you trust so much, may just be old refurbished and repackaged tires that might send you six feet below. Beware!!!
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