Police issue five times more fines for phone use than illegal tyres

Richard Aucock, Contributor
Thu, 18 Jan 2024

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that UK police forces are issuing five times as many fines for illegal phone use than they are to motorists with illegal tyres.

This is despite both being responsible for a similar number of accidents – raising concerns that police forces are not taking tyre safety seriously.

Indeed, the FOI request, conducted by Halfords, shows that some forces are issuing a staggering 25 times as many fines for mobile usage than they are for worn tyres.

Alarmingly, some forces failed to issue any fines at all for illegal tyres – while still managing to issue fines for mobile phone use.

Halfords’ own data shows what a serious issue it is, with 7% of all vehicles checked into Halfords garages having tyres below the legal tread limit of 1.6mm. That equates to a frightening 2.5 million vehicles.

Official data shows that in 2022, there were 137 accidents where someone was killed or seriously injured directly as a result of having unsafe tyres. There were an additional 531 casualties.

The numbers are similar to illegal mobile phone use, where 161 people were killed or seriously injured, with a further 674 casualties.

Yet the figures show that police forces are taking the enforcement of mobile phone use far more seriously than they are worn tyres.

"Mobile phone usage at the wheel is completely unacceptable and dangerous, make no mistake, but so are worn tyres," says Halfords CEO Graham Stapleton.

"Tyres are the only thing that connects a vehicle to the road and the figures for deaths and serious accidents caused by worn tyres reflect this. We understand that it is easier to spot someone using a phone than it is to check tyres. That’s why forces across the UK need an action plan for tackling this safety issue."

Data shows that, in 2022, police forces issued around 33,000 fines for mobile phone usage. In contrast, they issued just 6000 fines for illegal tyres.

The difference in the number of fines is, for some police forces, stark.

Greater Manchester Police, for example, issued over 3800 fines for mobile phones, but just 278 for worn tyres.

London’s Metropolitan Police issued over 3100 fines for mobile phone use and a mere 286 for illegal tyres.

North Wales Police was a rare highlight for tyre safety, though – it issued 1258 fines for worn tyres, compared to 670 for illegal phone use. Merseyside Police also issued more fines for tyres than it did for phones.

Ask HJ

What tyres will give a longer life?

I currently drive a Volvo XC60 2020 with 27,000 miles It is fitted with Pirreli P Zero tyres, they wear evenly but I only get 15000 miles out of the front tyres and the back ones are still the original ones. Can you recommend a tyre that would have a longer life?

15,000 miles for a set of front tyres is low, but not beyond the bounds of what is reasonable for a front-wheel-drive car. If you are looking for a tyre with the potential for longer life we would suggest looking at a tyre with low rolling resistance rather than a high-grip performance tyre or an all-season or winter tyre. We would suggest looking at tyres such as the Continental Eco Contact 6 and the Hankook Ventus Prime 3 X, both of which are A-rated for fuel efficiency, but it is worth bearing in mind that switching to a tyre such as this from your current P Zeros may result in a reduction in vehicle handling performance.

Answered by David Ross

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