Today Gary went to the Town Hall at Leamington Spa to watch an inquest taking place. An inquest is an inquiry by a coroners court into the cause of someone's death. In this case a young lady had died because the tyres on her car had worn so badly that they had very little grip and one wet day as her car was going round a bend it went out of control and crashed into two other cars. The lady who owned the car was killed and two other ladies were very badly injured and had to spend some time in hospital. Two new tyres for her car would have cost at most £150 for a pair, but she paid a bigger price with her life for not changing them soon enough. The Coroner who was in charge of the court said he hoped this tragic case would encourage other people to keep an eye on their car tyres.

Gary says not everyone knows how to check the tread depth on their tyres so here he is showing you the wear bar in the grooves of a tyre. Can you see the long vertical groove in the tyre next to Gary's paw?

If you look closer you can see Gary is pointing to a little square of rubber which stands up in that groove. That is the wear bar. When the tyre around it wears down level with the wear bar you must change your tyres because otherwise they will continue to wear and will be both illegal and dangerous.

Gary says - "Don't skimp on tyres. Buy the best you can afford because they are the only thing holding you onto the road."