New figures published by the Department for Transport have highlighted the ongoing risk posed to motorists by unsafe tyres.

According to the government's latest road safety statistics for the whole of 2012, there were 194 casualties on the UK's roads directly linked to dangerous, illegal or under-inflated tyres.

While this represents a five per cent improvement from the previous year, road safety charity TyreSafe has highlighted the considerable danger of failing to carry out regular tyre checks, while old or refurbished tyres can pose a risk to road safety if they are not properly checked before being fitted.

All vehicles must have a minimum tyre tread depth of 1.6 mm under current law – an easy way to ensure this is the case is to insert a 20p piece into the tread, if the band around the edge is fully obscured then the tyre is still legal.

Stuart Jackson, chairman of TyreSafe, commented: "Driving on illegal or dangerous tyres can result in paying the ultimate price. Regular tyre checks only take a brief moment yet they could be the most rewarding few minutes you ever spend."

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