Michael Molloy: Campaigning mum sees tyre law come into effect

A mother who fought for old tyres on large vehicles to be banned after her son died in a crash has said seeing the new law come into force was "surreal".

Frances Molloy's 18-year-old son Michael was killed when a coach tyre blew out as he travelled back to Merseyside from a festival in 2012.

Ms Molloy campaigned for fitting tyres aged 10 years or more to the front of lorries and buses to be banned.

She said after an eight-year campaign, she was "still trying to take it in".

Michael Molloy, fellow passenger Kerry Ogden and coach driver Colin Daulby died in the crash on the A3 in Surrey as they travelled back the North West from the Bestival music festival on the Isle of Wight.

An investigation into the crash found the tyre which blew out was a year older than Mr Molloy.

Ms Molloy, who set up the Tyred campaign group following her son's death, said the law, which was rejected eight times by Parliament before it was passed, was "common sense" and she "never doubted for one second" that she would not succeed.

The ban follows a Department for Transport (DfT) investigation, which found ageing tyres suffer corrosion which could cause them to fail.

She said she had had "quite an emotional weekend" ahead of the ban coming into effect.

"I'm never going to recover from what happened to Michael, but there is a sense of relief of that we have done as much as we can do," she added.

However, she said there was "still work to do", as though the law applies to all minibuses, tyres in twin configuration at the rear of lorries, buses and coaches were not included.

She added that she wanted to make sure the government "ban old tyres completely from all areas".

Both new and re-tread tyres are already require a date mark of manufacture, but the new requirement means that marking must be maintained "in a legible form".

An additional assessment will be included in the annual MOT test, a DfT spokesman said.

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