BRITISH drivers smear around 90,000 tonnes of tyre rubber each year on roundabouts, bends in the road and approaches to junctions, through fast cornering, late braking and poor tyre maintenance, according to the AA.

With UK motorists getting through 50 million tyres annually, each losing 1,800 cubic centimetres, or five millimetres, of tread in its lifetime, the huge quantity of rubber left on the road would coat a 375-mile road with a layer an inch thick.

It takes a film of rubber just a fraction of a millimetre deep to turn a dry road moistened by fresh rain into a skid pan.

Ignorance of tyre care means that drivers throw safety out of the window and money down the drain each time they corner at speed.

Director of AA service centres, David Wallace, said: "Half a ton of expensive metal and up to five human beings are held to the road by four lumps of rubber.

"You'd think motorists would pay more attention to their tyres, but few do.

"More care when choosing tyres, their maintenance and the way people drive would reduce the mountain of rubber that is washed down the country's drains."

Tyre facts

Increasing cornering speed by 10 per cent increases tyre wear rate by 50 per cent;

On a good, but wet, road surface, braking grip at 60mph from a tyre with two millimetres of tread depth will be half that of a new tyre;

A tyre at three-quarters of its correct pressure will have its life cut by 40 per cent. That doubles to 80 per cent when a tyre becomes half-deflated.