Today, I had a near miss because an idiot in front me of me had exactly one of three brake lamps working. He also had near-black tint on his front windows (technically illegal in MI) and non-functioning hood pins. On a battered Mercedes 200-series!
I would not advocate emissions testing to qualify for vehicle registration, but I am thinking now that mandatory safety inspections may be a good idea.
Should we let people drive with bald tires? Dead brake lamps? Dead headlights? Undamped, bouncing wheels? Worn out brakes? Ridiculously high lift kits that could result in decapitations in a collision with another vehicle?
I'm all for individual freedom, up to the point when people's poor maintenance or poseur engineering endanger the others on the road.
2 comments:
In Hawaii the annual license tab renewal comes with a mandatory safety inspection, handled by most gas stations. The inspection includes checking the headlights, turn signals, tailights and brake lights.
Still lots of dumb bruddas driving around out there, but at least the state is trying.
I remember in Autoweek about 15 years ago there was an article when many states were considering dropping the yearly inspection. The article summed up a statistical analysis of accidents between states that did, and did not, have inspections. There was no difference, hence the inspections were judged to have no impact except to waste lots of time and money.
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