Uniroyal in Ireland is partnering with the Rosemary Smith Driving Academy to highlight the importance of tyre safety to the teenage learner driver. It marks the first time secondary school pupils have undergone tyre-specific tuition in this form.
For the benefit of the academy’s learners, mainly transition year students, Uniroyal has provided a supply of user-friendly tyre tread depth gauges that are included in the learner pack that each student takes away from their driving course.
Included with the tread depth gauge is a tyre safety leaflet, written with the teenage learners in mind, with a minimum of jargon and use of humour to appeal to a young audience. The leaflet has a very serious message in highlighting a major shortcoming among Irish drivers – the need to take proper care of their tyres. According to Uniroyal research, only 1 in 7 young drivers knows the legal tread depth limit.
“It’s not just the teenagers who stand to benefit from this initiative with Rosemary’s Driving Academy,” explains Paddy Murphy of Uniroyal Tyres Ireland. “We know these kids will soon be driving their parents’ cars. Unfortunately, it’s those same parents who are often in most need of instruction in terms of tyre care. We’re looking to the pupils to exert a positive influence.”
Celebrated rally driver Rosemary Smith set up the driving academy when she saw similar programmes in the US. Its specially devised training programme has given over 11,000 transition year teenagers their first taste of safe driving in a thoroughly safe environment.
According to Rosemary: “We are very thankful to receive this support from Uniroyal – tyre care is a really important part of road safety and, as we tell our students, it is not rocket science. Motorists just need to carry out regular inspections of their tyres, looking out for any cuts or bulges. Your life and those of your family and other road users could depend on it”.
As part of the theory module, the students are taught how weather conditions, in particular, rain and ice, can have huge implications for the performance of a car and its tyres.
Uniroyal has been making Rain Tyres for 40 years. The range is ideally suited for Ireland’s wet climate as it uses a specially designed tread pattern to give added performance specifically on wet roads.
