With everything going on in the world these days, you may have missed a most interesting read: the National Highway & Traffic Safety Administration’s report entitled, Commercial Medium Tire Debris Study.

The agency contracted researchers to adopt a scientific approach to determine the causes, extent, and impacts of tire debris.

You’re probably shaking your head thinking: Kolman needs a checkup from the neck up. Right?

Not so fast.

I’ll have you know this 214-page report is chock full of educational, useful, and thought-provoking material. In addition to discussing the whole matter of tire debris, subjects addressed range far and wide - from the processes of tire manufacturing, retreading, and regrooving to fleets and their tire programs to truck tire failures to tire safety and durability issues to wide base tires and more.

One of the many things that caught my attention was that overall, researchers collected more than 86,000 tons of tire/rubber casings and debris, of which 1,496 items were assessed to determine their probable cause of failure. Talk about labor-intensive.

The researchers found that the top three reasons casings were removed from service were:

- Road hazards - 32 %.

- Maintenance/operational factors - 30%.

- Overdeflected operation (underinflation) -14%.

“Slightly less than 10% of all casings identified showed any manufacturing or process-related conditions that could be expected to contribute to the tire being removed from service,” the report stated. “Of this slightly less than 10%, the vast majority appeared to be retreading process issues, such as casing selection and repair, or tread rubber application issues.”

An underlying message throughout the report, published in December, is that proper tire care and maintenance is essential to keeping tires operating safely and at peak performance.

Give it a read.

The report can be accessed by clicking here.