TYRE specialist Kwik-Fit has called on the tyre industry to work together to put pressure on the Government to highlight the importance tyres play in car safety. The company says similar emphasis should be put on the dangers of driving defective tyres as those associated with drink driving and the environmental benefits of managing tyre use properly.

Simon Roper, Kwik-Fit Fleet sales and marketing director, said: 'Research could be produced to show that if you drive with two illegal tyres it will take you as long to stop as if you'd drunk several pints of beer. But if you're caught driving with bald tyres you are given a warning by the police and for the other you're banned from driving. This is the kind of discrepancy the industry should be getting across.'