Worn tyres with a below regulatory tread depth could cause loss of traction and stability, which will prevent vehicles from responding to steering and road holding, especially in wet weather. This will ultimately cause extreme drifting, where the vehicle could spin out of control. To reduce the risk of sliding across the road, check tread depth on all tyres and replace well before they reach regulatory minimum depth of 1.00 mm. Tread wear indicators in the grooves of the tyres are a quick way of checking the tread depth. According to statistics released by the Automobile Association of South Africa, an annual total of 70 000 minibus taxi crashes were recorded, which indicates that taxis in SA amount for double the rate of crashes than all other passenger vehicles.