HOW quickly will your car come to a halt if you are faced with an emergency braking situation on a cold winter morning?
It may not be quickly enough to save a life if your tyres are close to the 1.6mm legal tread limit. Or if they are the ones you have been using all summer.
Switching to winter tyres makes sense when temperatures plummet because they dramatically reduce braking distances as well as giving improved traction on snow or in other slippery conditions. They come into their own below 7C when it has been found they will stop a car 4.8 metres shorter on wet roads and 11 metres shorter on icy roads at 20mph.
Drivers in Scandinavia have been using them for years. They are demanded by law and no safety-conscious driver in Sweden, Norway or Finland would drive through winter on the same tyres they use all summer.
Now they are catching on in this country, with the merits of using them brought home during the Arctic conditions experienced in recent harsh winters.
The safety case for winter tyres is compelling, particularly if we face many days of snow-covered roads.
To the untrained eye they look similar to normal summer tyres but are made from a different rubber compound and have a specially designed tread pattern including 'sipes', tiny slits in the tread blocks that significantly increase grip.
They should not be confused with studded snow tyres, which are illegal in the UK if the studs are metal because they damage the roads.
Having two complete sets of tyres may seem to be an expensive investment but having them will mean your other tyres will last longer.
And if storage space is a problem, tyre dealers will usually store the spare set for a small charge that will also include changing them over again at the end of winter.
