How tire pressure affects safety
What else does tire pressure affect?
Final word
How tire pressure affects safety
Having the correct amount of air in your tires (otherwise known as maintaining the right tire pressure) will put you at much lower risk of safety issues directly related to your tires occurring. This works both ways. So, it is dangerous to have both under or over inflated tires but for different reasons. It only takes a few minutes to add air to your tires or to let some out, but it can be what prevents you from getting into a serious accident.
The danger of underinflated tires is that when your tires do not have enough air (pressure) in them they lose their grip on the road as well as their overall stability. This means overall handling of your car will be more difficult and maneuvering will take more time. This includes when you are braking. This can obviously be disastrous if you need to brake quickly in an unexpected situation. Overinflated tires put you at risk of a “blowout” which is when your tire bursts and you consequentially lose complete control over that wheel until you come to a stop. If you are driving at moderate to high speeds and experience a blowout, the results can be deadly.
What else does tire pressure affect?
Beyond posing serious safety risks, improper tire inflation can adversely affect you in a few other ways as well. If your tires do not have enough air pressure, they can end up decreasing gas mileage which means you will have to fill up more often. In 2022 and beyond, this will be quite costly and quite the unnecessary expense.
Both over and under inflated tires can cause your tires to wear out faster which will mean you will need to replace them more frequently. Finally, you will risk more frequent flat tires with improper tire pressure because the ability of your tire to be penetrated by something is increased by less than or more than the correct pressure.
Final word
Always be sure that your tire pressure is in the proper PSI range as recommended by your vehicle’s owner’s manual. Improper tire pressure can pose several safety hazards such as decreased ability to handle your car, blowouts and more. Incorrectly inflated tires will also lead to other issues such as bad gas mileage for your car, increased tire wear and more frequent flat tires. This can all be easily avoided by keeping your tires at the right air pressure.
