§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Minister of Transport (1) how many accidents he estimates have been caused by tyre blowouts, tyre punctures and ineffective tyres, respectively, during each of the past five years for which records are available; and how many drivers and how many passengers were killed and injured, respectively, as a result of such accidents;
293W(2) how many accidents he estimates were caused through defects in remould tyres, in each of the last five years for which records are available; and how many drivers and how many passengers were injured or killed, respectively, as a result of such accidents.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThis information is not available. Research by the TRRL between 1970 and 1974 showed that tyre defects of all kinds were found to be a main contributory cause of 2.7 per cent. of all accidents: in about 40 per cent of these tyre deflation occurred before impact.
§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Minister of Transport (1) whether he will take steps to require (a) remould tyres and (b) remould quality tyres to be clearly marked as such;
(2) whether he will seek to prescribe by regulations the maximum speed which may be driven on remould and remould quality tyres, respectively;
(3) whether he will take steps to inform motorists, whether by notices at tyres sales or repair points or otherwise, of the dangers of exceeding recommended speed limits with remould and remould quality tyres, respectively.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeRemould quality tyres, which are normally marked "regarded quality—DA" can be used in exactly the same manner as first-life tyres as they have only minor blemishes that do not affect their load or speed capability. I therefore see no need to prescribe a maximum speed or issue warnings to users for this class of tyre.
The British Standard BS AU144b, published in 1977, specifies a minimum speed capability for remoulded tyres of 60 mph for commercial vehicle tyres and 70 mph for car tyres. It also requires remoulded tyres to be clearly marked as such. At the moment I am considering whether to require by regulation that all new remoulded tyres should comply with this standard.
I have no evidence to suggest that lower speed limits should be applied to vehicles fitted with remoulded tyres nor that there is a need to provide warnings to users.
294W
§ Mr. Iain Millsasked the Minister of Transport if he will list the number of vehicles which failed the MOT test due to tyre defects and the number of successful prosecutions for tyre offences for the years 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe following figures on MOT tests are based on returns from 2 per cent. of the testing stations. They do not include testing by local authority or Crown testing stations.
Year Vehicles tested Vehicles failed due to tyre defects 1976 14,319,450 873,600 1977 14,413,290 857,650 1978 14,739,600 874,000 1979 14,976,700 845,000 I understand from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department that information on findings of guilt for offences relating to tyres—which include offences related to mixing of different tyre structures—is published annually in "Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales". Table 4, page 33, of the volume for 1978 (Cmnd. 7687) gives the latest information available.