Opposed to Safety Checks? SB 2625 which I introduced this session, will put an end to the annual safety check that costs consumers $15+ a year. The bill is being heard in the Senate Transportation Committee (TIA) tomorrow Feb. 1 @ 1:15 pm Room 224. Send in testimony.
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Utah presently has a bill, HB298, to abolish the inspection program in this state. I commend the honest legislator in Hawaii for trying end this ineffective and unnecessary program. The vast body of research and statistics over the past 10 years has shown safety inspections do not decrease accidents, they only exist for the economic self interest of car dealers, mechanics, and the vendors of inspection equipment. Do it, yes, end this unnecessary program.
The Automotive Service Association (ASA) says it opposes these changes to the Hawaii Motor Vehicle Safety Inspection Program because the bill’s effect would be to create less-safe highways in Hawaii – more accidents leading to more injuries and possibly more deaths.
ASA points out that state government studies of vehicle safety inspection programs in Missouri and Pennsylvania have indicated that inspection programs deter accidents, injuries and deaths.
The biggest problem I see with this is the issue of safety. By eliminating the periodic maintenance of a certain standard of safety that the inspection program provides, the streets will become a much more dangerous place to navigate. The streets will only be as safe as the most dangerous vehicle on the road. There is a huge concern about what will happen to our standards of safety if the inspection program is done away with.
qoute fromhawaii news now
“It’s kind of in a way like you go and get a full body check up on Thursday, and Friday you drop dead,” Sen. Sam Slom said.
Mr. Slom
By this logic we should discourage people from getting annual check ups with their doctor?
The program Evaluation Division of the State of North Carolina did the most extensive study to date of safety inspections-and found them ineffective. Drs. Poitras, Sutter, and Hemenway, and many other academic researchers have published studies in reputable academic journals finding safety inspections ineffective and unnecessary. Statistics from state to state do not bear them out. States such as Nebraska, that ended their inspection program, saw accidents continue to decrease. New Jersey ended their program in 2010, Washington D.C. in 2009, both DMV Commissioners declaring inspections burdensome and unnecessary. The only studies quoted by the ASA were commissioned by the people running the programs, and cannot be considered unbiased research.