Paddy Murphy, general manager of Semperit Ireland, has called for new rules governing the legal requirement for depth of tread on tyres.

His call comes as tests carried out in a wet-weather driving study showed that 1.6mm of tread, which is the minimum legal limit across Europe, is dangerously inadequate.

The new study found that a car braking from 120 kilometres an hour on wet roads with tyres at the 1.6mm legal limit could still be doing 80 kilometres an hour at the point at which a car with 3mm of tread depth had already stopped.

The dramatic difference is down to the fact a tyre's wetweather performance fades dramatically before the current law states that the tyre needs changing.

As a result, cars fitted with tyres with 1.6mm of tread need up to 44 metres . . . about 10 car lengths . . . longer to stop at motorway speeds than those with tyres with 3mm tread depth, which Murphy says should now be be the minimum legal requirement.

The tests, which have the backing of the Motor Industry Research Association, come at a time when the Irish Tyre Industry Association has estimated that there are 200,000 cars on our roads with dangerous or faulty tyres.

However, researchers in the independent study, carried out in the UK by Auto Expressmagazine and backed by the Continental Tyre Group, found increasing the tread depth from 3mm to 5mm improved a car's stopping distance by only nine metres.

Murphy says the government should put pressure on other EU countries to raise the legal minimum limit to 3 mm immediately.

"With the levels of rainfall encountered in Ireland, even in summer, motorists need to realise the road safety implications of trying to perform an emergency stop in the wet.

As the tests have shown, tread depth has a critical role in determining vehicle safety on wet or dry roads.

"Drivers need to be fully aware of stopping distances and the crucial part tyres play in improving the car's performance. I have no doubt that worn tyres coupled with bad road conditions are a significant contributory factor in many accidents on Irish roads."