Hundreds of Irish motorists run out of fuel and put the wrong fuel in their cars every year, according to figures revealed yesterday.
Despite clearly marked colour-coded service station pumps, AA figures show that since the start of the year 527 motorists sought help after having put petrol into a diesel car. A further 106 had put diesel into a petrol car.
The data also showed that 649 motorists have run out of fuel despite the presence in most cars of yellow-light warning systems and a dashboard reading with the average number of kilometres your fuel tank will sustain before being empty.
Fuel problems accounted for a total of 1,282 call-outs by AA Ireland between December 31st, 2005 and May 15th, 2006. However, the group made 62,513 call-outs in the period, meaning misfuelling and running empty accounted for a little over 2 per cent of the total.
Reasons for call-outs are varied according to AA spokesman Conor Faughnan. He said the "human factor" was the most common cause of breakdowns. "One quarter of our call-outs are for flat batteries because people leave the lights on. We had a person not so long ago who locked the keys in the car with a newborn baby inside."
The figures suggest Irish motorists may be more careful than our British counterparts when it comes to misfuelling and refuelling. A survey in the UK this week found that almost half of motorists had run out of fuel at some stage in their driving careers and more than 10 per cent had put the wrong fuel in their car.
A total of 14 per cent of males admitted to putting the wrong fuel into their car compared to only 10 per cent of females.
Men were worst offenders for letting the fuel tank run dry, with 52 per cent confessing to having done so compared to 42 per cent of women. The Green Flag survey was conducted amongst almost 3,000 adults in February and March.
It also showed that 9 per cent of male drivers have run out of fuel three or four times. Another 9 per cent of those surveyed said they fill up as soon as the petrol gauge reads half a tank. "It is remarkable that the Irish figures are very low. I was very surprised to see that," Faughnan added. Misfuelling can be very expensive to repair, he said. "It you have done it, don't do anything else. Don't even press the car's key fob," he said.
Ford is currently developing a device that will prevent misfuelling. The system contains an automatic diameter detector that allows only the larger diesel nozzle to be inserted into the filler pipe and locks out the thinner petrol nozzle. The system is expected to be introduced late next year.
