CALABAR, Cross River -                 The Public Enlightenment Officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Cross River Command, Mr Esu Ikpi, has warned motorists against the use fairly used tyres on the highways to avoid road crashes.

Ikpi told journalist on Tuesday in Calabar, that fairly used tyres had been found to be responsible for majority of road crashes on the highways. “It is highly dangerous to use fairly used tyres on the highways, they are not durable and cannot withstand pressure,” he said.

He stressed that many of the road crashes are as a result of burst tyres unlike new tires that are safer and more durable.

Ikpi said that tyres were manufactured with chemicals that expire after a period of time and when it expires, it’s prone to being punctured easily by sharp objects on the road. He also said expired tyres explodes easily due to the heat on the road as the vehicle is on motion, adding that this had been a major cause of road crashes across the country.

“Fairly used tyres are cheaper, but you cannot use them for more than six months without them being expired and worn out, new tyres may be more expensive but are safer, safety must never be compromised.

“Tyres get worn out and expired based on certain criteria such as, covering a distance of 80,000 kilometres, poor wheel balancing and alignment and others,’’Ikpi added.

The officer advised motorists to always ensure that they observe properly the date of manufacturing when purchasing any tyre for their vehicle.

“To avoid buying expired tyres, a motorist should check for the manufacturing date, it is a fourdigit number written and circled by the side of the tyre. “The first two digit represents the week of manufacture, while the last two digits represents the year of manufacture.

“So, when you add three years to the year the tyre was manufactured, you would know the expiry date of the tyre,” he said.

He, however, advised motorists to check the air pressure in their tyres whenever they visit vulcanizer’s workshop, adding that over inflating exposes the side walls of the tyre to be worn out, while under inflating it, would gradually destroys the middle wall of the tire.

“We hope to continue to educate our motorist on the dangers of using bad tyres on our roads, as it was one of the major cause of crashes,’’he said.