SoylentNews

HughPickens.com [hughpickens.com] writes:

Mark Gibson writes in the Washington Post that Virginia has a personal vehicle safety program overseen by the state police that cannot be shown to enhance public safety [washingtonpost.com]. The people who perform inspections are often the same people who fix any identified deficiencies. By contrast, neighboring Maryland requires only that a safety inspection take place upon transfer of ownership. The District does not require safety inspections at all. Pennsylvanians spend more than $600 million a year on mandated annual vehicle safety checks — one of 12 states requiring such. Mechanics look for indicators of problems with brakes, tires, suspensions and more. Since new cars are engineered to be safer, some people are again questioning the need for annual inspections. PennDOT commissioned a consultant, Cambridge Systematics, in 2009 to study the effectiveness of the state's inspection program. The study found that putting an estimated 11 million vehicles through garages costs motorists $267 million to $621 million. Without inspections, Pennsylvania would log between 127 and 187 more traffic fatalities each year [triblive.com], the consultants said.

According to a 2015 study the Government Accountability Office “examined the effect of inspection programs on crash rates related to vehicle component failure, but showed no clear influence [gao.gov].” The safety inspection typically involves a driver bringing a car to an authorized shop for testing on the brakes, steering, suspension and headlights, among other factors. Drivers get a sticker on the windshield to show their car has passed. “Nobody can prove with any degree of certainty that spending the money, suffering the inconvenience of getting your vehicle inspected, actually produces desired results [foxnews.com]," says Mike Wright. According to Gibson a government program that requires the purchase of a good or service in return for a nonexistent public benefit is illiberal and anti-consumer. "Two-thirds of states see no need to impose the burden of annual personal vehicle safety inspections on their citizens; Virginia should end its inspection requirement."

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