Quite possibly due to the market in part worn tyres where spares taken from scrapped old vehicles are sold as 'like new' and have lots of tread left, so despite being say 13 years old are put into service length of a new one.

I have not much against part worn tyres, but there should be an age limit of say 6 years old when put into service.

The report gives a clear reason - the tread was still quite good. I have been driving for over 50 years now and didn't know that the year of manufacture of a tyre is in dot code on the wall. So, if you aren't completely clued up it's a mistake waiting to occur.

That may be a half-reasonable explanation for a private motorist, but this was a PCV being operated by a (supposedly) professional outfit. One might expect a coach fleet to be subject to a structured maintenance regime, and for that to involve tyres being obtained from a reputable supplier and to be of suitable quality. Many operators have contracts with tyre suppliers who come in and take care of that side of things, however it seems that was not the case here. I would be reluctant to travel with any coach firm who use any old rubber they can get cheap. A quick gander at the 'Fleet' section of their wesbite shows some of their fleet to be rather aged, one would hope they have inspected their tyres.

Edited by happy polo on 22/07/2013 at 23:59