Traffic cop and tire companies give tips to motorist
The four day Easter weekend is almost upon us and while many persons have prepared their itinerary of where to visit and what they will wear, the same attention has not been given to their automobiles. To ensure safety and in light of the recent fatalities caused by tire blow-outs, News 5 Jose Sanchez spoke to representatives of tire companies and the traffic cops to find out how vacationers can have a safe weekend.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Two major accidents on the Northern Highway in the past two weeks have resulted in the death of seven persons. Because more drivers are expected to travel all the highways of the country over the Easter weekend, the Police Department intends to be vigilant with their patrols.
A.S.P. Francis Williams, O.C. Traffic Dept.
“We will be vigilant on the highway throughout the Easter weekend. By evening, night and day we’ll be doing traffic checks along the highway and within Belize City whereby we will be focusing our attention on persons drinking and driving, conditions of vehicles on the road especially at night, with the lighting effects. We will also be looking at the general safety of the vehicles on the roads. For example, tires as we mentioned, and lighting brakes and so on. We’ll be doing some checks at these checkpoints and ensuring that drivers wear their seatbelts and do not overload their vehicles with other passengers, especially in pickup trucks.”
Because tire blowouts are blamed for the recent fatal accidents in Carmelita and Mile forty-one on the Northern Highway, companies such as Enrique Martinez and Sons are advising drivers to check the air in their tires.
Soly Silva, Sales Manager, Enrique Martinez and Sons
“The things you need to check on the tires are the pounds P.S.I., which is the per square inch. That is on the sides of the tire. It also has many information such as the thread ware. Before you hit the road you need to check that you have enough thread ware on it. When you reach two-thirds of the tire then you need to change the wheel. It’s recommended to have between twenty-eight to thirty pounds. Having too little air can cause numerous troubles on it.”
Barry Reimer, the Sales Manager for Caribbean Tires, showed us examples of damages that people can look for when inspecting their tires.
Barry Reimer, Sales Manager, Caribbean Tires
“The first tire here for the first part you can see the thread ware is totally gone. So in that side already it should be changed. However, if you look on the inside of the tire even the wires are showing. That means that the alignment has been out as well. So as soon as the wires start showing it already is a big sign that the tires’ safety has been compromised. In this one you can see a bubble here. This indicates an impact which caused damage on the inner parts or the skeleton of the tire. This also increases the danger of the tire exploding and it’s normally due to road hazards like impacts, potholes; those types of things. This tire, looking on the surface, on the thread, it looks almost like a brand new tire. However, looking on the sidewall, you see quite a lot of damage on the sidewall. This is due to driving the tire actually completely flat. If this would be on the outside of the vehicle you would say it’s a perfectly fine tire. However, again if we look on the inside we see damage on the inside of the tire.”
Jose Sanchez
“People normally see this right?”
Barry Reimer
“No, normally you wouldn’t see it because if you would have this side on the outside you would just do a superficial look and you would say nothing is wrong with the tire. However, on the inside you can’t really see from the outside you have to go underneath or take off the rim and tire from the vehicle so that you can inspect the inside of the tire. And just to compare, these are two brand new tires. You can see the amount of meat they have on top – two different brands. There’s a light truck tire and that’s a car tire.”
Jose Sanchez
“What is the main cause of a blowout?”
Barry Reimer
“In the U.S. they did a study on the major accidents that happen on the freeways in the U.S and that study revealed that over fifty percent, and I believe it was up to seventy-five percent of the times a vehicle had a blowout it was because the tire was under-inflated. So this makes under-inflation the number one enemy of a tire, and in Belize we like to have our tires under-inflated. Again I must stress, it does not mean that we run them flat. It means we run them at very low air pressures.”
A.S.P. Francis Williams
“There are several tips that we can share with the general public to back up road safety for this weekend. First of all, you do a pre-check on your vehicle before you move off. Make sure you have sufficient fuel, your tires are inflated to the regulation standard, wear your seatbelts at all time. Do not overload your vehicle so that it exceeds the maximum weight the vehicle should carry and also wear your seatbelts if you are travelling.”
If you aren’t sure if your tires are road worthy for the Easter weekend, Caribbean Tires is offering free tire check-ups. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
