Tire Maintenance and Safety Tips to Help Prevent Accidents
Tire maintenance is an important part of staying safe while driving. Your vehicle’s tires provide essential traction during Arizona summer monsoons. In 2017, NHTSA reported 738 people were killed in tire-related crashes. Many accidents can be prevented with proper tire maintenance, understanding tire labels, and tire aging. The NHTSA recommends:
- Have your tires checked annually for rubber breakdown, which is accelerated by heat and sunlight
- Rotate tires every 5,000 – 8,000 miles (for most vehicles)
- Check tire pressure monthly, even the spare (per vehicle manufacturer specifications)
- Observe tire and vehicle load limits
- Visually inspect tires for cuts, slashes, and other irregularities
- Make sure your tire valves have valve caps
- Check tire pressure before leaving on a long road trip
In addition to tire maintenance, NHTSA recommends avoiding road hazards while driving. Safety tips include: slowing down if you must go over a pothole or other object in the road; not running over curbs or other foreign objects in the road and not hitting the curb when parking. To help consumers better understand tire maintenance, tire aging, and tire labels, the NHTSA created a guide called Being TireWise. https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/11084a_tirehome_102918_v5_tag.pdf
Consumer Reports suggests checking your tire pressure yourself and not just relying on your vehicle’s tire-pressure monitoring system, inspecting the sidewalls and tread for cuts or bulges, replacing all four tires at once or replacing tires per vehicle manufacturer recommendations. Making tire safety (pressure, alignment, rotation, tread) a priority in your vehicle maintenance can help prevent tire-related crashes.
