The European Road Safety Charter was established by the European Commission in 2004 with the aim of halving the number of road deaths within the EU.
The following year, Bridgestone Europe signed an agreement to support the charter, and has now opted to extend its support for a further three years. Bridgestone says its new charter agreement will be backed by a proactive program of tire safety checks to educate motorists on the importance of correct and regular tire maintenance.
Bridgestone plans to conduct at least 30,000 tire safety inspections on European motorists’ vehicles during 2010. These will be accompanied by a range of educational tools including the distribution of up to 50,000 free tire pressure gauges, 50,000 printed leaflets in various languages and 50,000 tire check report-sheets to all participating motorists.
The inspections will be carried out at various public places such as car parks, shopping centers, motorway petrol stations, dealer open days and other events.
The results of these tire inspections will, as in previous years, be published. Bridgestone believes it is important to make the findings known as doing so draws media attention to the issue of tire safety and helps spread the message to all motorists that taking proper care of tires is important both for their own well-being and that of the environment.
Publicized results from Bridgestone tire checks in 2009, conducted as part of the tire major’s global Think Before You Drive road safety campaign, show that 81% of motorists in Europe drive on underinflated tires and 17% of tires are worn down below the EU legal tread depth minimum of 1.6 millimeters. In addition to putting motorists’ safety at risk, this lack of adequate tire care wastes the equivalent of £4.7 billion in fuel and adds 9.3 million tons of extra CO2 emissions a year. (Tyres & Accessories)
