Tyre safety campaign - "Tyre Safety Day"

Defective tyres are a serious risk to all road users. Road accidents and indeed tragedies can be avoided if vehicles are roadworthy and tyres are a major contributory factor in ensuring the road worthiness of a vehicle. The RSA Fatal Collisions 2008-2012 for Ireland report identified "the condition of tyres accounted for almost two thirds of the 101 vehicle factors cited as contributory to a collision". Defective tyres were very prevalent as a factor in single vehicle crashes (74%). Over half of the tyres on the 66 vehicles with defective tyres were excessively/dangerously worn, 11% were underinflated, some dangerously low. Of collisions that had tyre quality as a contributory factor, the majority of defective tyres were on cars (84%)- (6%) motorcycles. The Irish Tyre Industry Association is committed to playing our part addressing road safety challenges in the area of tyre safety by -Promoting tyre safety awareness through public campaigns. Offering our industry experts for guidance in this area to key stakeholders - Ensuring best in class standards in the tyre industry. Our objectives were: To conduct a public awareness campaign on tyre safety that would engage the public and encourage them to check their tyres. To highlight the dangers of driving with defective tyres. To educate the public on all aspects of tyre issues - tread depth, tyre pressure - looking for defects. To educate the public on their legal obligations in relation to safe tyres. To engage our members in a campaign of promoting tyre safety. Our primary audience is the general public - all those that are driving a vehicle either domestically or commercially. Our secondary audience is the membership of ITIA to promote tyre safety to the general public.

Project activities

If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role.

Our initiative involved two partners: The Irish Police - An Garda Siochana. The Garda Siochana carried out roadside checks around the country during our campaign and advised the public on tyre safety using an educational leaflet we provided. The Road Safety Authority - also participated in the roadside checks by deploying their road safety experts to assist the police at the checks. They also took pictures at checkpoints of any defective tyres which were circulated on social media to promote awareness.

Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented.

Tyre Safety Day was a designated day during a full Road Safety Week. This allowed us to run the campaign the week prior to and during Road Safety Week. Prior to Road Safety Week: A national Radio Advert to alert the public to check their tyres in advance of Road Safety Week. Press Release to all local media to advise of Tyre Safety Message. Road Safety Week: A joint Press Release was issued to launch Tyre Safety Day with ITIA RSA and Gards. A Roadside Awareness Campaign was carried out throughout the country where checkpoints were set up by the Gards and supported by RSA technicians who provided guidance to road users on tyre safety. This was supported by an education leaflet. A Joint video with ITIA -Gards - RSA was created and published on social media. It also accompanied the Press Release Safety leaflet to hand out roadside. Communications for Tyre retailers: To ensure that tyre retailers around the country could promote the tyre safety message ITIA provided retailers with support materials as follows: A Communications and Marketing Handbook, Tyre Safe Poster for Retailers to display, Supermarket Trolley Keys as giveaways, Tyre Safe Leaflet for retailers to distribute to customers, Retailer Social Media Graphics to allow them to post, Competition ideas were provided to Retailers. Social Media Campaign: An extensive campaign was initiated with Social media posts on Facebook and Twitter. Paid advertising Posts drove traffic to a directory of experts so consumers could locate an expert near them for a free tyre check. A Facebook competition asked the public a question in relation to tread depth and the winner was given a voucher towards their next set of tyres.

List the actions you carried/are carrying out

Date

Thursday, 26 May, 2022

Evaluation

What has been the effect of the activities?

The information gathered from the 2020 campaign has informed the 2021 campaign. Measurements were made on social media channels in relation to increases in followers and likes over the week period. Page views, post reach and video views were also recorded. Top performing posts were recorded for use this year. Activity to the website was measured in relation to visits and popular page views. The following points were identified at the end of the campaign and are being addressed for this year. High website bounce rate of 67% and average duration of 51 seconds indicates website work is needed. Directory seems to be the most popular page on the website, should be optimized to help reduce bounce rate. ITIA appearing second in Google search, behind Irish Translators and Interpreters Association. SEO work can improve this in the future. Facebook should remain the main communications platform. Twitter proving reliable and should be developed further over time. Social Media measurement provides excellent performance feedback for us. There is also feedback from retailers on increased visits to outlets for tyre checks.

Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety.

This initiative titled 'Tyre Safety Day' brought together law enforcement, road safety promotion and industry expertise to focus on a particular aspect of vehicle safety in a targeted approach - namely tyre safety. By designating one day within road safety week as 'Tyre Safety Day' the public received a clear message to check their tyres supported by visible activity to reinforce the message. This was also supported by radio advertising , national press release and social media advertising.

How have you shared information about your project and its results?

Yes, visit links.