THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409090023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
Your editorial favoring repeal of the annual auto safety-inspection program fails to note that there would be several unwanted consequences of such an unwise action.
First, the cost of increased auto insurance would more than offset the $10 savings and time saved in not having to have an inspection. If you do not believe that this would occur, make inquiries of auto-insurance companies, and watch the filings for rate increases with the SCC after the inspection law is repealed.
Second, the number of junkers on the highway will significantly increase. If you think driving down the interstate and coming up on one of these junkers about to disintegrate in front of you is a pleasant experience, then continue campaigning for repeal of the Virginia vehicle-safety-inspection program. Defensive driving will then have new meaning!
Third, your argument that eliminating the safety-inspection program will free up more state police for criminal work is specious at best. The main reason to have a state police force is traffic-law enforcement, and the vehicle-inspection program is an essential element of traffic safety. Police criminal work is best left to the local law-enforcement agencies that are charged with that responsibility.
Finally, while you cite reports that in states that have done away with safety inspections no significant change has occurred in accidents due to faulty vehicles, you don't state how much time has evolved since those states' laws were changed. I would hazard that your figures are based on a statistically insignificant time period - too brief to accurately measure the true results of no auto-safety inspections. A better comparison would be to compare the safety records of Virginia with those of a state that has not had an auto-safety-inspection program for as many years as Virginia has had one. I doubt the results would be as you found them.
I would rather spend the money and the time to have my vehicle checked annually by a trained inspector than experience the alternatives I have described.
RUDY ROY
Virginia Beach, Sept. 2, 1994 by CNB