Since a high degree of the accidents that happen are due to low tread depth of your car tires. It is important that you check the tread depth to ensure that you are not driving around with old and worn out tires. Since you lose a lot of your tires properties when the tread depth decreases and once you reach the threshold value of 5/32 inches or 4 millimeters, is time to change your tires to a new set of tires. Some tires will have a Driver Safety Indicator, where you can see on the tread the remaining tread depth in millimeter.
When you drive with worn out all-season tires, your risk for aquaplaning increases and if you combine that with higher speed, you are very likely to experience aquaplaning, as your contact area decreases. When you reach the threshold value 5/32 inches and you drive at a speed of 70mph you only have 10% of the tires contact area compared to what you have when the car is at standstill. This is compared to close to 60% at speeds of 40 mph. It is therefore important to make sure that you reduce your speed if you have tires that are close to the threshold value when it is raining. Lowering the speed when driving in rain will always be useful to ensure optimal control over your vehicle. It is also important to check the tire pressure as low pressure makes the car more difficult to control, which can be detrimental for driving in wet conditions.
It is not only the risk of aquaplaning, but also your braking distance gets longer, and your handling and control is reduced when it is wet. The same is true for dry conditions that your braking distance and control is reduced, which can be noticed when taking sharp corners and curves. This makes it dangerous to drive too long with worn out tires, so be sure to measure the tread depth on a continuous basis and keep track of how it changes, so you can predict when you will get close to having worn out tires. As you want to make sure that you change all the four tires at the same time, you will need to rotate the tires between the front and rear axles.
You also need to make sure that you have the correct tire pressure, so that you have the optimal contact area of the tire. The tire pressure should be checked at least on a monthly basis when you visit the petrol station. It is also important that the shock absorbers are in good condition as they help to press the tire towards the road, increasing the grip and thus reducing the braking distance. Make sure that you have the correct tire pressure and that your shock absorbers that are in good condition and buy tires that are good at preventing aquaplaning, then you should be ready for any conditions that you might face during the summer.
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