Worn-out tyres on worn-out roads is a disasters, says the AA

As many as 17% of main roads fail basic skid resistance tests, the AA Motoring Trust and the County Surveyors' Society (CSS) found in their two-year survey.

They also found 10% of cars have illegal tyres, 90% of tyres are wrongly inflated and up to a half of garage air pumps are inaccurate.

They urged drivers to check tyres and called for more road maintenance.

The quality of surface maintenance on many roads is not good enough Bert Morris

They also urged garages to keep pressure gauges easy to use, accurate and clean, or remove them from service, and asked the police to put information about road surfaces in their national accident reports.

'Life and death'

The AA Motoring Trust's director Bert Morris said: "Tyres are critical car safety components; they are the easiest for motorists to check, yet most don't.

"But road surfaces are critical too and road authorities must have, and fully deploy, funds to provide safer surfaces.

"Doubling skid resistance can halve the number of accidents, while driving on worn-out roads on worn-out tyres is courting disaster.

"The quality of surface maintenance on many roads is not good enough and the minimum threshold for tyre tread depth may no longer be adequate."

CSS president Geoff Allister said: "How well rubber and road grip each other can be the difference between life and death in crashes and near misses.

"We need much greater investment from local authorities in road surface renewal - few other budgets have such an influence on life and death in their communities.

"It's time for society to treat road crashes resulting in death or severe injury as seriously as those in the air, on the railways or in the workplace."