NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1969 SESSION

CHAPTER 378

SENATE BILL 218

AN ACT TO REQUIRE MOTOR VEHICLES TO BE EQUIPPED WITH SAFE TIRES.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1.  Part 9 of Article 3 of Chapter 20, as the same appears in the 1965 Replacement Volume 1C of the General Statutes, is amended to insert therein immediately following G.S. 20-122 a new section to read as follows:

"G.S. 20-122.1.  (a) Every motor vehicle subject to safety equipment inspection in this State and operated on the streets and highways of this State shall be equipped with tires which are safe for the operation of the motor vehicle and which do not expose the public to needless hazard. Tires shall be considered unsafe if cut so as to expose tire cord, cracked so as to expose tire cord, or worn so as to expose tire cord or there is a visible tread separation or chunking or the tire has less than two thirty-seconds inch tread depth. For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply: H2 1.

1.         Chunking - separation of the tread from the carcass in particles which may range from very small size to several square inches in area.

2.         Cord - strands forming a ply in a tire.

3.         Tread - portion of tire which comes in contact with road.

4.         Tread depth - the distance, measured near the center line of the tire, from the base of the tread design to the top of the tread."

"(b)      The driver of any vehicle who is charged with a violation of this Section shall be allowed 15 calendar days within which to bring the tires of such vehicle in conformance with the requirements of this Section. It shall be a defense to any such charge that the person arrested produce in court, or submit to the prosecuting attorney prior to trial, a certificate from an official safety inspection equipment station showing that within 15 calendar days after such arrest, the tires on such vehicle had been made to conform with the requirements of this Section or that such vehicle had been sold, destroyed, or permanently removed from the highways. Violation of this Section shall not constitute negligence per se."

Sec. 2.  G. S. 20-183.3 as same appears in the 1965 Replacement Volume 1C of the General Statutes is hereby amended by adding a new subsection "(7)" to appear as follows:

"(7)      Tires"

Sec. 3.  G. S. 20-176(b) is hereby amended by inserting between the citations "20-122" and "20-123" appearing in lines 9 and 10 the following citation: "20-122.1".

Sec. 4.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 5.  This Act shall become effective upon its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 1st day of May, 1969.