Tyre industry sharpens focus on tyre safety amongst educational institutes

Having held awareness drives at different campuses of Honda Cars, Infosys, ISRPL (Indian Oil) and Pipapav Port etc, the Rs 60000 Crore Tyre Industry in India represented by Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) has launched a drive to reach out to university students and sensitize them about the important aspect of Tyre Care & Safety.

ATMA is a group of 11 large tyre companies accounting for over 95% share in tyre production in India. In a 2-day event held at Amity University Noida (NCR Region), young students were creatively engaged by holding tyre safety quizzes in the sprawling campus on tablet computers (tabs). The quizzes brought to the fore students' knowledge of tyres and the aspects related to tyre safety.

Amity University was chosen as the kick-off venue since a significantly large number of students use personal cars necessitating awareness on the critical difference that tyres make between a safe, fuel-efficient and enjoyable ride or an unsafe, tiring and an environmentally bad one.

"Today's upwardly mobile youth is highly conscious of the choices he or she makes in terms of personal mobility. Cars/SUVs are aspirational in nature and are often used to make a statement. A glance at the parking lots of a large university such as Amity proves this point amply. Unfortunately, tyres or tyre care doesn't attract that much attention from the youth. Through this drive we tried to create awareness about the technicality of tyres as a safety feature", said Rajiv Budhraja, Director General ATMA.

Indian Tyre Technical Advisory Committee (ITTAC) actively participated in the tyre safety drive at Amity University. Service engineers invited by ITTAC closely inspected tyres of a select sample of cars. About 40% of the cars had tyres which were underinflated, overinflated, worn out or not well maintained.

In an interactive session held with the students, the fact that tyre plays a pivotal role in road safety being the only point of contact between a vehicle and the road was brought home to the assembled students.