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GAO-07-246R 1 (2007-02-09)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptausm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Sai Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 February 9, 2007 The Honorable Byron L. Dorgan United States Senate Subject: Underinflated Tires in the United States Dear Senator Dorgan: More than a quarter of automobiles and about a third of light trucks (including sport utility vehicles, vans, and pickup trucks) on the roadways of the United States have one or more tires underinflated 8 pounds per square inch (psi) or more below the level recommended by the vehicle manufacturer, according to a report by the Department of Transportation's (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).' A decrease in tire pressure can be caused by poor maintenance, driving habits, punctures, road conditions, and the quality of material used in tire construction. According to tire experts, under normal driving conditions, air-filled tires can lose from 1 to 2 psi per month as air permeates through the tires. Vehicles with underinflated tires have had handling problems that caused crashes resulting in fatalities and injuries. In addition, the fuel economy of vehicles driving on underinflated tires is slightly lower. In response to your request for information on these issues, we addressed the following questions: (1) What is the impact of tire underinflation on safety and fuel economy, and what actions has the federal government taken to promote proper tire inflation? and (2) what technologies are currently available to reduce underinflation and what are their implications for safety and fuel economy? To address these questions, we interviewed officials from federal agencies, tire industry associations and businesses, and public advocacy groups. We examined their studies on tire pressure and its impact on safety and fuel economy, and the technologies used to detect underinflation and maintain tire pressure. Unless otherwise specified, in this report we refer to the nongovernmental organizations that we contacted collectively as industry. We also examined federal legislation and DOT requirements on tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), DOT's program for increasing public awareness on maintaining proper tire inflation, and fleet maintenance directives provided by the General Services Administration (GSA) to federal agencies that lease GSA vehicles. Finally, we assessed the methodology that NHTSA used to conduct a survey on tire underinflation and found it, and some of the conclusions derived by the agency from the survey, appropriate for our use in this report. (See encl. I for additional information on our methodology, including a list of 'NHTSA, Research Note: Tire Pressure Special Study (Washington, D.C., August 2001). GAO-07-246R Underinflated Tires

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