US Government Accountabiity Office describes extent of tyre under-inflation problem

Washington, DC - An official report has found that over a quarter of cars and a third of light trucks in the United States are running on under-inflated tyres. The data shows that these vehicles have at least one tyre that is down on pressure by 8 psi (0.6 bar)

The impact of this is hundreds of extra deaths on the road each year (roughly 0.8 percent of all road fatalities) and 1200 million gallons (4500 million litres) extra fuel consumed (around 1 percent of the US total fuel consumption).

The report, outlined in a written reply to US senator Byron Dorgan brings together most of the existing research into tyre pressure statistics and summarises the legislative and technical environment surrounding tyre pressure management systems, related to car, light truck and heavy truck applications

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Download full report (from US GAO (710 kB .PDF file)

Under-inflated tyres take toll on lives and fuel New Scientist (UK / US)