KEY POINTS:
The Motor Trade Association wants a range of controls to eliminate the dangers arising from fitting the wrong snow tyres on vehicles.
Among the suggestions it has made to Land Transport NZ are:
* A ban on the import of second-hand snow tyres.
* Snow tyres on imports to be replaced before a certificate is issued to allow the vehicles to operate in New Zealand.
* Vehicles operating with snow tyres fitted outside the cold season and away from colder regions of the country should be refused a warrant of fitness.
* Vehicles found with a combination of snow and conventional tyres should be refused warrants of fitness.
Association communications manager Andy Cuming said he did not think it reasonable to expect the average motorist to pick the difference of tyre types and potential danger signals when buying a used vehicle - particularly if it had a current warrant.
Mixing worn snow tyres with summer tyres was given as one of the reasons for the deaths this year of sisters Lucy Elizabeth Simon, 18, and Isabelle Jan Simon, 15, after their car slid on a bridge near Levin on SH1 and hit a truck.
Levin coroner Phillip Comber said in his findings one of the prime causes of the accident was that the car had worn snow tyres on the rear unsuitable for New Zealand conditions.
- NZPA
