Show Tires Don't Cause Many Car Accidents A new federal government study has found that passenger car tires are significant factors in traffic the Tire Industry Safety Council THE NEW findings were contained in a report to Congress by U.S. Comptroller General Elmer B. Staats on the entire federal auto safety testing The Comptroller General heads the General Accounting Congress' watchdog over federal welcome this additional evidence that today's tires are not among the major highway safety said Ross R. Chairman of the THE GAO report concluded that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should reevaluate its testing spend less money testing and more testing headlights and other safety-related the Safety Administration's emphasis on testing tires was brought more in line with the small significance of tires as a factor in traffic proportionately greater attention could be focused on safety problem indicators and on standard areas having a higher potential for reducing traffic injuries and the report IN FISCAL years spent a total of million on compliance the report More than half of this went for tire compared to million for vehicle and for other accident data and information from tire studies indicates that disabled passenger vehicle tires are not significant factors in traffic and that the Safety Administration's relative degree of emphasis on tire in terms of its total enforcement is more than the report THE GAO report cited accident data provided by the National Bureau of the Traffic Institute of Northwestern and the Highway Safely Research Institute at the University of to back up its statements on tire The National Bureau of Standards in 1970 estimated that tire disablements contributed to only to 1 pec-cent of highway the GAO report THE TRAFFIC Institute figured less than one tenth of one percent of tire disablements resulted in The Highway Safety Research Institute found tires involved in only 30 of accident investigations filed in its computer as of Additional information shows that at least 19 of those 30 cases involved worn or THE GAO report also cited part of an opinion on tire safety handed down by a U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago last December invalidating part of a proposed safety standard for The Court in appears to be a fair statement from the record except for excessive wear or thin tires in retreated tires pose no significant safety problem THE REPORT noted that funds for testing new tires cover only two safety while the remaining funds cover 32 including seven which has classified as |