A commissioned comparison
The Sun reported on an analysis commissioned by Halfords and conducted in February 2026 by Professor Peter Wells of Cardiff University. It examined wet-road stopping distance with tyres at the UK legal tread minimum of 1.6mm.
That test condition is important. The tyres were at the legal limit, not bald or necessarily illegal. Halfords presented the work as a comparison with a modelled reaction delay associated with mobile-phone use.
The 70mph figures
At 70mph, the published table gives a total stopping distance of 96 metres on good tyres, 111.5 metres in the phone-use scenario and 123 metres with tyres at 1.6mm. That makes the added distance about 15.5 metres for the reaction-delay model and 27 metres for the legal-limit tread condition.
The analysis says the difference attributed to the legal-limit tyres becomes larger than the phone scenario above 40mph, while the results are closer at lower speeds. The appropriate term is total stopping distance because the phone comparison includes reaction time.
What the comparison cannot prove
A headline claim that one is simply “more dangerous” is broader than the evidence. Mobile-phone distraction creates risks that are not captured by a single stopping-distance comparison, and the tyre result depends on specified wet-road assumptions.
The material reviewed does not link to a peer-reviewed paper or a full experimental protocol. Readers should understand both who commissioned the work and the limits of what its published figures establish.
A legal limit is not a performance promise
A separate OnePoll survey commissioned by Halfords covered 2,000 UK motorists in March 2026 and suggested that tyre checks and knowledge of the tread limit were inconsistent. Survey findings and stopping-distance modelling are different strands of evidence and should not be blended into one result.
The most useful conclusion is modest: under the analysis’s wet conditions, tyres at the legal tread minimum were associated with a materially longer stop than good tyres. The legal threshold remains a minimum, not a guarantee of equal performance in every condition.
Source note
Based on The Sun’s 23 March 2026 report and the commissioning company’s methodology summary; no peer-reviewed paper was linked.