Nutty to use oversized tyres on family cars

With Malaysia having one of the world’s highest per capita road deaths, it is up to Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook to figure out ways to rectify the situation.

I would like to record some recent observations while driving on roads in the peninsula recently.

Moving machinery and, more specifically, rotating machinery all come with protective guards to prevent injury and death. This includes the likes of angle grinders, skill saws, meat slicers and almost any machine with rotating parts.

Automobiles are designed with the wheels recessed into the vehicle chassis, with no protrusion. Otherwise, they would never pass any worldwide safety standards.

However, travelling to and from work during the recent festive season, when there was a tremendous increase in traffic, I could not avoid noticing how many small cars were being driven around with oversized tyres sticking out from the sides of the vehicles, sometimes by up to 10cm.

In fact, some of these cars look as though their back axle is broken. If they go over a bump, the tyre would definitely rub against the chassis.

The other day, while sitting in a traffic jam in central Seremban, where two out of the four or five lanes of traffic are always blocked by double-parked inconsiderate drivers, I noticed a Proton Perdana with ridiculously oversized tyres creeping along next to me.

What was more alarming were the polished or chrome steel spikes protruding from the wheel nuts, posing a danger in case of a collision.

Just the other day, driving to my office in the afternoon, I slowed down to let a Myvi, bouncing along with oversized tyres and moving like a radio-controlled toy totally out of control, get well ahead of me.

This obsession with oversized tyres is not restricted to the small to medium average family saloon cars. The latest 4×4 range of pick-up trucks seems to be also getting tyre upgrades, with the tyres again protruding from the vehicle body.

Some have also gone to the extent of raising the chassis well above the oversized tyres, making the vehicle vertically unstable.

These “monster trucks” are great for car shows, maybe even off-road rallying, but not for roads used by other vehicles and pedestrians.

A rotating oversized vehicle tyre will have a number of consequences when involved in a collision with other road users, whether it is a motorcycle, a cyclist, a pedestrian and domestic or farm animal.

The rotating tyre will draw inwards, and under the vehicle, whatever it hits rather than the body knocking it away. This will be the case when it involves a collision involving pedestrians, cyclists or smaller motorcycles.

When the rotating tyre strikes an object similar in size or larger, it will tend to lift itself and throw the vehicle unpredictably in another direction. This will include the Arco-style road barriers along all major roads and highways in Malaysia.

Having two rotating oversized tyres making contact at speed on any of the country’s roads is devastating to the cars involved as well as any innocent drivers in the vicinity.

Look up the Mark Webber (Formula 1 driver) crash where his car flips because of the rotating tyre contact.

We are not looking at rocket science here but very basic road safety that will save lives.

Have the police and Road Transport Department stop these vehicles with oversized tyres. Give them a certain number of days to produce the car at their local police station with regulation-size rims and tyres, or issue them a traffic ticket. If these drivers are stopped again still sporting the dangerous tyres, cancel their road tax or licence.

These oversized tyres on cars and 4×4 pickups are very dangerous and will kill more people on Malaysian roads.

On a similar note, there seems to be a trend for lorries to use an oversized wheel nut, all 10 or so of them. Many of these are on large steel wheelbases that for some reason protrude beyond the tyres.

These spinning large oversized nuts will cut down the side of a family car like a can opener. A brief inspection of lorries at any highway stopover location will give an indication of how prevalent this trend is. It is commonly seen in the front wheels of mid-sized delivery-type trucks.

I turn left most mornings at a T-junction on a national road on the way to work. There is no traffic light at the intersection and it can be very busy, depending on the time of day.

It is absolutely impossible to see the oncoming traffic from the right if the car next to me has blacked-out windows.

There should be full enforcement against tinted windows in the country. This issue has been discussed at length but enforcement has been lacking so far, despite past promises.

If the driver of a car cannot see through the windows of the car next to him for oncoming traffic, it becomes a hazard to road users.

If you can’t see the driver of a vehicle, you can guarantee they can’t and haven’t seen you either.

Richard Chapbell is an FMT reader.