Tire maker Michelin has launched a campaign to educate teenagers about the importance of tire safety. Many driver education programs neglect tire safety with the result that many teens drive with no basic knowledge of tire safety. Such motorists are less likely to appreciate the need to make sure that their tires are functioning well at all times.
According to statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 12% of car accidents involve young, inexperienced drivers who suffered a tire blowout, tire failure, or some other tire-related problem while driving. As part of the campaign, Michelin is launching a series of videos on YouTube that feature popular YouTube stars to educate teenagers about the need to keep themselves updated about tire safety.
Michelin and the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile also teamed up to conduct a survey that found that most American teenagers lack even the most basic tire safety skills to keep them safe on the roads. The folks at Michelin also believe that if most American teenagers were educated about tire safety, as many as 300,000 deaths could be prevented in car accidents every year.
If you are the parent of a teenage child, your child will depend on you to teach him or her about tire safety because those issues aren’t covered in any driver’s education program. Teach your child to check for tread separation problems. That can be done easily using the “penny test.” Check in a safe and easy manner using a Lincoln penny. Insert the penny into the grooves of the truck with Lincoln’s head pointing down. If any portion of the head is obscured, then the tread is too shallow. This is a simple test that any teenager can perform to check tire tread.
Teach your child to check tire inflation, and make sure that the tire is inflated to the right pressure for the vehicle. Check your car manual to detect what kind of pressure is optimum for your vehicle.
