AS many as one in 10 tyres in use by UK car drivers is illegal and could be putting lives in danger according to a nationwide survey of car users by the National Tyre Distributors Association.

There could be as many as 13 million tyres in use that are not within legal limits, which would include many vehicles in use by fleets. The NTDA's campaign, called TyreCheck 2000, examined 37,500 car tyres for tread depth and the results have sparked calls for a change in the law to introduce tougher penalties for drivers using illegal tyres.

It showed that 10% were under the minimum 1.6mm depth and a further 17% had less than 2mm of rubber left, showing more than a quarter of tyres were past their legal use or nearing the end of their lives.

Nearly half of all car tyres were incorrectly inflated, despite this affecting the handling of the car, risking blowouts and severely damaging fuel economy.