Since the Times-Free Press allows me only one letter a month, I will post here what I would send to the T-FP, had I not sent something to them a couple weeks ago.

Adam Crisp and his editors are either sloppy, lazy or in bed with their sources.  Mr. Crisp reported today on the front page of the paper a story about re-treaded tires, commonly known as recaps.

The article focuses on the hazard that recaps pose to drivers, as they can disintegrate, leaving pieces of rubber in the road.  Hitting a piece of tire at high speed can do serious damage to your car.  Mr. Crisp attributes to high heat the failure of recaps and thus, the presence of pieces of tires all over the highways.  Apparently, a piece of tire does not separate from the tire during the colder months.  Nothing was proven in the article about this, but we did read many unchallenged assertions.

At one point, near the end of his article, Mr. Crisp quotes Edward Crowell, president and CEO of Georgia Motor Trucking Association.  He writes, “I’ll stand up for the industry here,” Crowell said. “The only study I know of … found the vast majority of the rubber came from car tires.”

Well, that could be or not.  The study was not identified, and Mr. Crisp just let that statement stand, unchallenged and unattributed.  The implication, of course, is that truck drivers are less to blame for the tire pieces on the road than are car drivers.

A little research shows that retreads are mounted mostly on trucks & their trailers, fleet vehicles, taxis, buses, off-road vehicles and other commercial vehicles.  Some are mounted on passenger cars, yes, but so what?

Nothing was mentioned about poor maintenance and incorrect inflation, the chief causes of recap failure.  Nothing was mentioned of over-loading, a common practice of truckers, in tire failure.

If the (un-named) study that Crowell quotes actually represents reality, it could easily be attributed to the fact that there are many more cars on the road than trucks.  So if they throw off more rubber, it’s only because there are more cars to throw off the rubber pieces than there are trucks.

The Times-Free Press publishes misleading articles like this frequently.  We should read carefully what they print.