Shocked motorway police “couldn’t believe their eyes” when they stopped a Range Rover towing a trailer “limping along” the A1(M).
Officers stopped the black SUV, with a packed trailer sporting a missing wheel and a cracked tyre in tow, in Stevenage.
The Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Roads Policing Unit say one of the tyres was “severely cracked” and that the trailer had an “insecure load”.
A police spokesperson said: “Our road policing teams in Stevenage couldn’t quite believe their eyes when they saw this trailer limping along the A1(M).
“It’s always advisable to have ALL your tyres intact. Five out of six ain't gonna cut it! (sic).”
“An accident waiting to happen. Good work. Driver should lose his licence for 6 months if he can't work out that it is not safe,” said one user on Twitter.
Police say the car Range Rover was “prohibited from driving” and the driver was “dealt with”.
The minimum legal limit for tread depth is 1.6mm, with a potential £2,500 maximum fine and three-penalty points applicable to each tyre found to be below that limit or in an unroadworthy condition.
According to TyreSafe, a tread depth gauge or even 20-pence piece can be used to how close a tyre is to that limit.
They said: “When using a 20p, simply insert the coin into the main grooves across the tyre’s centre and at numerous points around its circumference and check to see if the border of the coin is visible.
“If it is, you may be close to the legal limit and should have the tyre properly measured by a professional.”
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