Auto Safety Inspections Worth Hassle?

Auto Safety Inspections Worth Hassle? — Once 31 states required regular safety inspections. Now just 19 (17 as of 2017) do including Pennsylvania.

The decline started in 1976 when Congress eliminated the Transportation Department’s 10-year-old ability to withhold funds from states that did not have inspection programs.

So did the states like Florida end up with Road Warrior-type highways of jerryrigged jalopies with bald tires and bad brakes terrorizing helpless citizens?

Apparently not.

Dan Sutter, an economics professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, co-authored a 2002 study that found inspections have little to no effect on decreasing accidents.

“It seems reasonable that vehicle safety inspections would be a good thing,” he said. “But the data just doesn’t support that.”

He attributes this to great increases in vehicle reliability.

Just something to think about the next time you are trying to set up a ride to work the day you schedule for your car inspection.

Auto Safety Inspections Worth Hassle?

Auto Safety Inspections Worth Hassle?

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