Adequate tread depth is an essential to help motorists avoid aquaplaning. Aquaplaning refers to loss of traction caused by water on the road surface.
Adequate tread depth is an essential to help motorists avoid aquaplaning. Aquaplaning refers to loss of traction caused by water on the road surface.
"A tyre needs a firm grip on the road surface to ensure proper control," said Bridgestone Promotions Manager, Jan Maritz.
"Most drivers associate loss of traction with situations like skidding which is frequently caused by abrupt steering or excessive speed when cornering. But loss of traction can also be caused when a tyre encounters more water than it can clear away."
At 120 km/h on a road covered with a film of just one millimetre of water, the front tyres of a typical small sedan each need to clear away six litres of water per second.
During a heavy downpour where standing water may be a centimetre deep, each tyre needs to clear away 60 litres of water per second at 120km/h. This is equivalent to dispersing a bathtub of water every three seconds.
Tyres disperse water by channelling it between the gaps and grooves in the tread and mopping up excess water with small slits in the tread blocks called sipes.
However, if the speed is too high or there is too much water on the road, the tyre's ability to disperse water becomes overwhelmed and it lifts off the road surface to skim along the surface of the water.
This can make it difficult to brake, steer or accelerate.
Aquaplaning only ceases when the water depth drops below the critical limit or the vehicle's speed slows enough for the tyre to regain contact.
Many vehicles which experience aquaplaning crash before control is regained, so it's important to prevent aquaplaning by reducing speed on wet roads and adjusting position in your lane to avoid deep standing water if possible.
"The legal limit is 1.6mm tread depth remaining, but anything below three millimetres is really not enough to cope with a severe rainstorm, even at reduced speeds," Maritz said.
