1 in 20 Crashes May be Due to Underinflated Tires

If you’ve been driving for a period of five years or longer you’ve most likely heard the advice of a friend or family member to always keep your tires inflated. The importance of maintaining proper tire pressure was driven home recently by Consumer Reports when they revealed that a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety administration showed that underinflated tired were over 25% more likely to cause an accident than tires that were underinflated.

What Happens When Tires Are Underinflated?

It doesn’t matter if you have Nitto Tires or some other brand of tires, if they are underinflated one of the first things that you will experience is a lack of control on the road when you have to react quickly. Some of the other dangers of driving with underinflated tires are poor gas mileage and poor performance when hauling loads.

How to Ensure Your Tires Are Not Underinflated

Step 1 – Purchase a tire gauge at your local auto parts store. You should check your tire pressure once every two weeks and add air to your tires at your gas station or local mechanics.

Step 2 – Visually inspect your tires for imbedded debris or damage. If you see debris wedged in your tires like nails or glass, you should take your vehicle back to where you purchased your tires to have that debris removed.

Step 3 – Clean your tires regularly. By doing a regular cleaning you should be able to visually notice when one tire is lower than the other.

Safe Driving Does Pay Off

Even though you might be tempted to peel out or drive at high speeds while on the roads, studies show that unsafe driving does lead damage to tires and accidents every single year. If you feel tempted to step on the gas or drive like a race car driver, take your car to a closed track or empty parking lot where you can have fun safely.

Invest In Unlimited Protection

Most tire retailers sell unlimited tire rotation and balance plans with their tires, if you’re going to be buying tires soon make sure that you choose an unlimited maintenance plan just so you can bring your tires back for rotating and balancing or to have debris removed. These maintenance plans can save you hundreds of dollars per year and always insure that your tires are in perfect running condition for any driving situation that you might encounter.