The Vehicle Safety Inspection (or Not) Thread

[LD48750]

Between the 2 threads you've said this a couple of times. Yet I don't see you posting any stats to bolster your argument.
Personally, I don't much care either way about this subject. But if you're going to keep asking others to post stats for their view, you should be prepared to do the same.



I can't post how many times because there are too many. Whenver I park my manual shift Mustang I pull the E brake. Not always but often I pull the brake on my truck when hooking up to a trailer so that it doesn't roll back that couple inches to mess up alignment with the trailer ball.



In my state this is often called a "fix it" ticket. But you are issued a traffic ticket and have to appear in court with some type of proof that you actually addressed the problem. Doesn't necessarily mean that you have to take to a shop.

Traffic Safety Facts Annual Report Tables

Show me how the states with mandatory safety inspections are safer.

 

[JJZ 109]

Traffic Safety Facts Annual Report Tables

Show me how the states with mandatory safety inspections are safer.

Again, I have little interest in arguing a point on this topic. Notice that I haven't stated an opinion either way. I merely asked that someone who is demanding stats from others do the same.
I viewed the link and clicked on my state as an example. Maybe I cruised through it a little quickly, but I still did not find a stat showing anything about state inspected versus uninspected vehicle crash involvement. I suspect that there is no such thing or that it's a very obscure thing to find.
If your point is that states without inspection have lower or comparable accident rates with those that do, I'm sure it's possible. But that may be due to coincidence, luck of the draw or other factors that none of us probably has a real handle on.

 

[Howling]

Traffic Safety Facts Annual Report Tables

Show me how the states with mandatory safety inspections are safer.

Look at the Fatalities Per 100 Million Vehicle Miles Driven for each state.

For the same miles driven you in MI with no inspections have about twice the risk (1.01) of a fatal accident vs me in MA with annual inspections (0.56). These are the 2017 numbers.

 

[k0ua]

There is no evidence because cause isn't collected at accident scenes, as pointed out in the link which I both quoted and provided. Are you saying that everybody does the proper maintenance on their vehicles, and nobody is driving around with bad brakes, inadequate tires, sloppy front ends, no taillights?

No what we are saying is it was just a money making racket and it doesn't make any difference. We all got tired of it in our state and we killed it. We need less government oversight in our lives not more. Missouri is a free state and I am just pretty proud of that. We don't need no stinking handgun permits either any more. We got rid of that too. and you know what, It didn't make a difference either. All it accomplished was a money making racket for the Sheriff.

 

[hawkeye08]

When we ignore personal responsibility, we have to have inspections to require us to fix things that we should have fixed already on our own.

 

[LD48750]

Look at the Fatalities Per 100 Million Vehicle Miles Driven for each state.

For the same miles driven you in MI with no inspections have about twice the risk (1.01) of a fatal accident vs me in MA with annual inspections (0.56). These are the 2017 numbers.

And for 100k population, MI=10.34 national average=11.40 & Maine= 12.88

What the report shows is inspections don't matter.
Some states with inspections have better then the national average & some worse for accidents.
Same with non inspection states.

 

[RandyT]

Look at the Fatalities Per 100 Million Vehicle Miles Driven for each state.

For the same miles driven you in MI with no inspections have about twice the risk (1.01) of a fatal accident vs me in MA with annual inspections (0.56). These are the 2017 numbers.

But another way of looking at it is number of fatalities per square mile of the given state For your state of MA it is .0446 fatalities/sq mi, In MI as mentioned by another poster is .0181/sq mi, and in my home state of IL it is .0197/sq mi. My state at one time inspected pickup trucks but not cars. Only thing that is inspected now is trucks with over 8001 pound plates, or trucks pulling trailers with 8001 or more pound plates. So tractor trailers, school buses, and large pickups

 

[k0ua]

Remembering back now with the inspection racket, there was always "old joe" or some crooked inspector that would inspect anything and never find fault for an amount of money. This was a common part of the "racket". And on the other end of the scale were the bunch that always found fault even if it was not a problem, because they were in the business of "fixing" it. I don't know how many of these "in depth" news reports of news agencies finding these unscrupulous inspector/vendors doing this. My point is the entire program was rife with corruption one way or another, which is typical when the government stars mandating things. The law of unintended consequences is still a law.

 

[JJZ 109]

Remembering back now with the inspection racket, there was always "old joe" or some crooked inspector that would inspect anything and never find fault for an amount of money. This was a common part of the "racket". And on the other end of the scale were the bunch that always found fault even if it was not a problem, because they were in the business of "fixing" it. I don't know how many of these "in depth" news reports of news agencies finding these unscrupulous inspector/vendors doing this. My point is the entire program was rife with corruption one way or another, which is typical when the government stars mandating things. The law of unintended consequences is still a law.

Governments everywhere have tried to legislate common sense. It hasn't worked in 243 years of this republic, why do today's clowns in office think now will be any different?

 

[TractorGuy]

I was in the auto repair business for 25+ years during a time that we had inspections in FL and also after they were done away with by Bob Graham. I argued in favor of keeping them based on some experiences I had with customers asking for partial repairs to make a vehicle go while ignoring repairs that make them stop or otherwise safe.

Vehicle inspections had no effect on my bottom line and at times were a thorn in my side. Our inspections were performed at state operated facilities that did not profit by or make repairs. Doing away with them was a campaign promise made by Gov Graham because his wife had to wait in line for 20 minutes at one of the facilities.

One example was a customer asking for a clutch repair on a vehicle with no brakes. We refused to make the repair unless the car was made safe so the customer left it there until they could afford both repairs. This was when we were arguing to keep inspections.

Another incident after inspections were gone was a customer brought a car in for a alt/water pump belt replacement. I felt the car give when I sat in it to bring it in the shop. On closer inspection I found it was a rusty northern vehicle and the uni body frame was cracked. The car was about to break in half. It was too rusty to facilitate any kind of safe repair and was ready for the crusher. The customer was adamant that I put a belt on and allow them to drive away but I refused. I went a step further on that one and called the FHP. They told me if the customer tried to drive it away to call them back and they would have the car impounded. I had an angry customer but I kept an unsafe vehicle off the road. I think they had it hauled away on a flatbed. Don't know if they found someone else to put a belt on it of if it went to recycle.

An example of them being a thorn in my side was one of our stations had a loose track on the brake test. I worked on Volvos that had a triangular braking system the was the precursor to antilock brakes. That one lane at that one station would fail the brakes on those vehicles. Of course customers would bring them to my shop complaining, especially if I had done any brake repairs on them. You could drive the vehicle through the recheck lane at the same facility and it would pass with flying colors.


At the end of the day we have got by fine without inspections and it's one less bit of government intervention and one less tax to pay. I can't say I have noticed any increase of unsafe vehicles on the road.