The news that law-enforcement officers from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) have found seven commercial outlets selling balloon tyres not compliant with approved standards and specifications and seized 63 such tyres is a very positive sign that the authorities concerned have started cracking the whip.
The fact that the MEC had conducted an inspection campaign at some 20 tyre shops on Salwa Road and only seven of those were found violating the law is a good indication in itself.
The indiscriminate use of balloon tyres, which are meant only for sand or desert, is considered as one of the biggest reasons for major accidents on Qatar’s highways.
Even the gruesome October 6 road traffic accident this year that killed five Filipinos was caused when a Land Cruiser, reportedly running on balloon tyres ploughed into an old Path Finder parked on the hard shoulder of a road near the Hamad International Airport in Doha.
The fact, as revealed to the media by Philippine ambassador Cresente Relacion on October 26, based on a road accident report from the Ministry of Interior’s General Administration of Traffic dated October 8, that the Land Cruiser was driven in excess speed by an 18-year-old national who had no licence and the vehicle’s insurance policy had expired, depicts another sad aspect of the incident.
As the MEC has pointed out in connection with its raid, the sale of balloon tyres is banned as they put people’s lives at risk. Balloon tyres, which cannot handle excessive heat or high speeds, overheat at high speeds and do not stop instantly when brakes are applied at a high speed. These tyres are meant only to be used in the desert as they enable vehicles to run smoothly over sand.
In a news report published by Gulf Times in June last year, a safety expert was quoted as saying that large SUVs constitute the majority of vehicles involved in road traffic accidents and an overwhelming number of them run on balloon tyres with very little road traction.
The balloon tyres commonly seen on large SUVs on Qatar roads have the tread run parallel to the tyre, offering very little traction on road. As effective as they are in the precise condition they were designed and tested for, they are incredibly dangerous when used on the highway.
In the past, most of the balloon tyres sold in Qatar had the warning message “Tyre design for safari in desert only. Not for highway service”, imprinted on the outer wall, but of late most manufacturers have dispensed with this, the expert had said.
Though vehicles fitted with balloon tyres are never meant to be running on the roads of Qatar, reality paints a very unfortunate picture. Any road user can find out that a considerable number of SUVs out on the roads are using the banned balloon tyes. These errant motorists who do not give not even scant respect to their lives and that of others ought to be stopped immediately. The ball is in the court of the Traffic Department.