"In recent months our workshops have seen extensive damage to tyres and wheels, caused by potholes, and while these can be repaired or replaced, potholes pose an even greater risk to motorists. A big enough pothole, hit at sufficient speed or the act of swerving into oncoming traffic to avoid a pothole can be life-threatening," said Tiger Wheel & Tyre Marketing Executive, Joe du Plooy.
To minimise this risk, the company offers motorists this advice for avoiding and dealing with potholes.
- Increase your following distance. Give yourself more than the legal following distance. If you're too close to the car in front and that driver swerves to avoid a pothole, there's no chance you're going to see it in time to avoid it.
- Drive at or below the speed limit. The limit is set with ideal conditions in mind and that's not currently the case. Drive even slower at night. You need extra time to scan the road for potholes, especially in unfamiliar areas.
- Approach puddles with extreme caution and avoid driving through them, if possible. They may be potholes in disguise.
- Slow down when approaching a pothole and use your hazards to warn the drivers behind that you're dealing with a situation. Assess if you can safely drive over it (not through it) or if you need to stop and wait till it's safe to drive around it.
- Report potholes. Don't assume someone else will do it. The way to do this is by contacting your local municipality.
"Hitting a pothole usually results in damage to tyres, though it's not always obvious to the untrained eye. Add speed to the equation and you'll likely incur damage to your wheel and maybe even your suspension too," added du Plooy.
On a positive note, there is a way to mitigate the damage to your pocketwhen replacing damaged tyres. Tiger Wheel & Tyre's *X-Sure tyre insurance covers your tyres against serious damage, including the kind caused by potholes. The insurance is available on new tyres at the time of purchase and on used tyres too.
If the damage occurs within the first 30 days or 2000km after fitment of your new tyres, you will get a full credit towards the purchase of the same or similar new tyre from Tiger Wheel & Tyre. With insured used tyres, the insured sum is calculated by taking into account the starting and remaining tread on the damaged tyre, minus 1mm, and the final value is issued to you as a credit towards the purchase of a new tyre. On the used policy only, there is a waiting period of 30 days before you can claim.
X-Sure is available for all brands of tyres and the policy is valid for 50,000km travelled on the insured tyre/s or three years from the start date, whichever comes first, and allows for one claim per insured tyre.
If you are in the unfortunate position of needing to replace a pothole-damaged tyre, check out Tiger Wheel & Tyre's new Trending Treads promotion. From now until 3 May 2014 Tiger Wheel & Tyre stores will promote a different tyre brand every week and offer a free service of either wheel alignment or balancing and nitrogen with the purchase of four tyres on that week's "trending treads".
For more details on these weekly promotions, to learn more about X-Sure insurance and to find the Tiger Wheel & Tyre store nearest to you, visit the website www.twt.to.
*X-Sure is not available in Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique. Tiger Wheel & Tyre (Tiauto) is an authorised Financial Services Provider and X-Sure is underwritten by The Hollard Insurance Company Limited (Reg.No. 1952/003004/06), an Authorised Financial Services Provider.
