The CVSA's 29th annual International Roadcheck kicked off today and will run thru June 9, 2016. According to their site, they will check and complete 17 vehicles a minute. They will be doing a level one inspection or North American Standard Level 1 Inspection with a special focus placed on tire safety (i.e., measuring the tire tread depth, checking the tire pressure, checking to make sure that no items are lodged between dual tires and examining the overall condition of the tire to make sure that no deep cuts or bulges exist in the sidewalls of the tire). This is an annual three-day event.

While checking a vehicle's tires is always part of roadside inspections, below is some information provided by the CSVA to help you understand the importance of tire safety.

Understanding Tire Specifications

Tires are rated not only for size, but for maximum load, type of service and speed of operation. Tire specifications on the vehicle tire information label should be followed. Inspectors may check for overloading of tire capacity when scales are in use.

Air Pressure

Tires with a 15 percent under inflation equals approximately to an 8 percent decrease in expected tread mileage and tires with 10 psi under inflation can cause tire wear out to be 20 percent faster than normal. Tires can run up to 5 degrees hotter for every psi the tire. A mismatch of 5 psi can change the tire circumference and over 100,000 miles would be equivalent to dragging the under inflated tire 246 miles.

Tread Size

For every size that a tread width is undersized from the recommended width, mileage is reduced by 10 percent.

Tread Depths

Across axles and between tandem axles, tread depths need to be within 4/31".