Arizona study prompts TRIB information campaign

PHOENIX (Dec. 13)—The Tire Retread Information Bureau is writing state transportation and highway patrol officials in all 50 states, asking them if they plan to conduct any highway studies concerning retreads, and if so, to offer TRIB´s assistance. TRIB Managing Director Harvey Brodsky was motivated to send the letters after he learned recently of an Arizona Department of Transportation study of tire debris, a year after it was issued. "Nobody in the industry knew about this," he said. "This is the first thing we´re doing to prevent being blindsided." The study, which covered tire debris found in the metropolitan Phoenix area, was not unfavorable to retreads, Brodsky said, but could have been a disaster for the industry if it had been. The study concluded 71 to 89 percent of tire "alligators" came from retreads. But it also concluded tire debris presents a minuscule highway problem, causing only 0.02 percent of accidents in the Phoenix area. "Tire debris is primarily a maintenance problem," it stated. "A ban on retread tires would unnecessarily burden trucking companies without addressing the root causes of most tire failures."