AS many as one in five British company car and van drivers could be driving with unsafe tyres, endangering their own lives and those of others.

Tyre safety checks on vehicles parked in office car parks revealed about 20% needed attention.

The survey was carried out by Kwik-Fit Mobile, which says the figures could mean as many as 800,000 of the UK’s three million company cars and one million vans could be running on at least one unsafe tyre.

Typically tyres were under or over inflated, or below the legal tread level of 1.6mm. Mike Wise, Kwik-Fit Fleet’s sales director, urged fleets to include tyre checks as a vital feature of risk management strategies.

He said: ‘Ensuring tyres meet the legal requirement is a vital part of any corporate risk strategy, but the human aspects in terms of safety to my mind far outweighs the legislative situation.

‘Companies must not be complacent. After the first check has been carried out a lower proportion of tyres need to be fitted during each safety check because the unsafe tyre problem is under control.’