Tyred Out - For most drivers, a tyres life is over when the tread depth reaches the 1.6mm legal minimum. Thats great if you want to avoid a fine, but seriously flawed for preventing accidents.

Studies by the Motor Industry Research Association showed that in wet braking and cornering, the critical tread depth is around 3.5mm. From new until this point, a tyre has lost around 4mm of tread and less than 2% of it's wet braking ability. But for the next 2mm of wear they found that performance deteriorated by up to 35%.

In real terms, the 50mph to 0 stopping distance increased from 23.8m with the full 8mm of tread to 24.2m with only 4mm of tread. At the legal minimum of 1.6mm of tread it increased to 36.5m - a full 9m further than new tyres. That's two car lengths further - easily the difference between crashing or coming safely to a stop. The story is even more worrying on a concrete surface as you find on some motorways where the speeds are even higher than the 50mph brake test. With new tyres it took 5m further to stop than on tarmac and with barely legal tyres it took a massive 13m extra - about the length of a 40 tonne lorry!!

In order to test these results AutoExpress Magazine together with Roadsafe, took 4 Rover 75's and kitted them out with tyres with 8, 4, 3 and 1.6mm. The speed was set to 50mph and done on a soaked tarmac surface. They also did a test to see how cornering in the wet was affected by tyre wear.

The results were just as dramatic on the wet cornering test with the difference between new and barely legal tyres being huge. The slightest accelerator input with the 1.6mm tyres pushed the nose wide and required much more steering input to maintain the line. Enter a corner or roundabout too fast and the chances are you would not recover control before hitting something you'd sooner avoid.

In conclusion, it is crucial to keep a close eye on the tread depth on your vehicles tyres and consider changing them not as late as the bare minimum of 1.6mm but at 3mm as recommended by most road safety experts. It clearly makes a huge difference to how quickly you could stop in a hurry.

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Driving Blind!! - You're driving home after a long, tiring day at work. It's getting dark, it's raining hard and the roads are jammed. Worse is to follow. You're diverted down an unfamiliar route, hundreds of motorists crammed into single lane traffic speeding to get home to their families. You strain to see past the headlights and brakelights ahead in the gloom. You seem to find yourself not spotting hazards till the last moment and having to brake late and harshly. It crosses your mind that you can't see at all well .... but then you dismiss it!

This is unfortunately all too familiar to many of the countries drivers. Some will be wearing glasses with an outdated prescription, some will have forgotten the glasses that they are legally obliged to wear, and some that have never had an eyesight test as they are unaware or don't care that their eyesight has deteriorated.

In Britain there are currently no legal checks on your eyesight once you pass your driving test. To pass you must be able to read a number plate at 20.5 metres in good light. If corrective lenses are needed to be able to do so then you are legally obliged to wear them when driving. From then on It is an offence and very dangerous to drive if your eyesight is not up to standard so opticians recommend an eyesight test every 2 years.

Make sure that your eyesight is good enough to drive safely. Your future, your familys, or an innocent motorists or pedestrians life could depend on it.

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Anticipation - an-tis’ip-at-shon, n.   the act of anticipating: intuition: imagining beforehand: the ability to pre-deduce what might happen: the expectation of a glorious drive to come: lip-licking feeling of key-in-hand walk to car.

Despair - di-spar , v.i.  to be without hope: dashed hopes: despondency: anguish: forlornness: gloom: melancholy: tribulation: the wretchedness of the soul when picking up broken car bodywork remnants thanks to lack of the above.

Anticipate a better day; don’t just drive, think!

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Six penalty points and you're out! - The 'New Drivers Act' came into force in July 2001 as an incentive to obey the driving laws. If you reach 6 or more penalty points within two years of passing your driving test (i.e. during the probationary period) DVLA will automatically revoke your driving licence when notified by a court or fixed penalty office. To regain your full licence you must then obtain a provisional licence and pass the theory and practical test again. Penalty points counting towards the total of 6 include any you incurred before passing the test, as long as the offence took place not more than 3 years before the latest penalty point offence. Passing the retest does not remove penalty points from your licence, and if the total reaches 12, you are liable to be disqualified by a court. What better incentive to take your time to gain experience and be careful!!

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