The Tyre Retreading Manufacturers Association of Malaysia (TRMAM) has described as unfair the statement by the Works Ministry that the use of retreaded tyres contributed to over 10,000 road accidents in the country.
Its president Chin Hon Meng said this was because companies under TRMAM were accredited with MS 224:2005 certification as stipulated by the Road Transport Department (JPJ), adding that the mandatory product certification for retreaded tyres was also gazetted by the government in November 2007.
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| Unfair to blame road accidents to retreaded tyres: TRMAM |
On Jan 4, Works Minister Baru Bian was quoted to have said that, based on statistics revealed by the Malaysian Highway Authority, more than 10,000 accident cases in the country were due to the use of retreaded tyres.
“The certification, whereby the tyres are put through endurance and performance tests, is in compliance with the MS 1394:2017 standards and equivalent to the European Commercial Vehicle Tyres Standards (ECE R109),” Chin told reporters here today.
“All the negative comments on retreaded tyres are being made without objective and technical knowledge, hence blaming all defective trucks and bus tyre failures to retreaded tyres is unreasonable,” he said.
He said there were many other factors which could lead to such accidents, including under-inflation of tyres, speeding, uneven roads and the lack of enforcement and monitoring of illegal tyre factories.
Chin also said that retreaded tyres were being used worldwide, including in the United States, Europe, Japan and Singapore and some tyre distributors even hired qualified retreading tyre factories to produce tyres for them.
“This is happening worldwide. If the retreaded tyres are not safe, do you think they will want to appoint and to sell these tyres under their name?,” he said.