QuoteChristopher Anthony
Between 16 and 17 July a coroner's inquest in Woking examining a fatal coach crash last September heard, that the vehicle lost control and left the road following the failure of it NSF tyre – a tyre manufactured 19 years earlier, expert witnesses testified that several of the six tyres fitted to the coach were old and the DOT code showed the failed tyre to be "Abnormally Old" and had potentially been delaminating for months.
The problem was that such deterioration could not have been picked up by visual inspection, the tyre was only partially worn, so had either been kept in storage or used as a spare for a number of years.
Coroner Richard Travis was obviously frustrated that there is no legal mechanism in place to monitor aging; "the real reason this tyre failed do catastrophically is through age" he said; invoking Rule 43 (of the coroner's rules1984) that requires him to draw attention to the Minister for Transport of the dangers caused by "the fact that vehicles. Be they private, commercial or public are legally able to drive on tyres without restriction of age and by reason of age are potentially in a perilous condition.
Just a thought for anybody bying second hand tyres off Ebay, part worn suppliers or maybe your spare wheel in the boot
its easy enough to check there will be a small oblong on one side of any tyre since 1985 with 3>4 numbers in it, the first two number being the week the second two year of manufacture
IE 4802 would be manufactured in the 48th week of 2002
woo hoo look at me being all informative lol :shocked:
Interesting by the looks of it the spare in my car is the original and the car is an 04 plate so the tyre is probably over 9 years old. What is the 'shelf life' as the tyre has been out of sunlight for the whole time and looks perfect to look at?
We have a quick rule of thumb at work based on Michelin advice as 7 years safe use, we don't sell anything over 2 years old
But i think the whole point is there is no legal requirment for tyre age, just condition which doesn't take into account deteriation that you can't see as in the coach crash
Interesting. I drive a 23 year old Mazda 323 with 70,010 miles on the clock.
Will be having a look at the tyres in the morning.
Especially in light of this happening half a mile from me. .. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/six-people-injured--two-seriously--in-crash-on-m25-in-surrey-8771266.html
The second pic in that article is taken from a footbridge I use when walking the dog. Didn't go rubbernecking though.
Great post. Nice one Choo.