There are millions of vehicles in the Kingdom. Hence, there seems to be nothing unusual in the presence of tens of thousands of such shops, which mainly employ Arab and Asian nationals and offer all types of tires for sale.

However, the problem is that the used and cheap quality tires sold by these shops are one of the major causes of the alarming number of road accidents in the Kingdom, according to a recent report in Al-Eqtisadiah business daily.

The newspaper quoted an earlier statement by Traffic Department Director General Maj. Gen. Suleiman Al-Ojlan, who claimed that used tires were directly linked to over 3,500 road accidents that killed at least 1,400 people over the last three years.

In other words, faulty tires were directly linked to a quarter of road fatalities over the same period.

According to official figures, the Kingdom imports about 25 million tires costing over SR4 billion a year. Around two-thirds come from East Asian nations while the remainder is imported from Europe and America.

Some reports claiming only 40 percent of tires are imported from East Asian states are seen as false by experts.

Some shops are even failing to fulfill the requirements and conditions set by the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization for storing tires in the safest way. Improper storage could lead to tires wearing out quicker or even bursting.

The way in which tires are stored is as significant as their quality and standards, say experts.

Even though the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs reiterated its ban on used tires two months ago, they are still available on the market.

During a tour of a large number of auto maintenance shops in the capital, Al-Eqtisadiah confirmed that thousands of used tires were offered for sale.

One salesman, Muhammad, even showed the newspaper’s reporter where they were stored.

It seems that there is nothing regulating these businesses and stopping them from selling used tires, especially as there is an absence of stringent punitive measures.

Under current laws, if anyone is caught selling used tires, he will face a fine as well as being made to promise in writing not to repeat the offense.

The Jeddah municipality found in a single earlier that at least 42 shops were illegally selling used tires. Bashir Abu Najm, director general for licenses and commercial monitoring at the municipality, said inspectors from the department had discovered huge numbers of used and expired tires in the market.

“Some of them did not even carry an expiry date,” he said, adding that such violations constitute commercial fraud.

Al-Eqtisadiah also reported that a laboratory commissioned by the Saudi Customs Directorate to test tires discovered that a quarter of those imported to the Kingdom did not match quality standards. Almost all of these faulty tires were made in East Asia.

Muhammad Al-Zain, the laboratory’s director, said that in certain cases tires that met the required standards were later found to be faulty because they were not stored properly.

He urged motorists not to buy used tires and to check their manufacturing date, capacity, type and quality.