Texas about to do away with auto inspections

Can someone point me to any sort of study or statistic that indicates what percentage of accidents are caused by improperly maintained vehicles - because my guess is its pretty much zero.
Florida did a study like that before they did away with the state inspections in about 1976. They found that far less than 1% of the accidents were caused by mechanical issues that the vehicle inspections would or should have caught. One of the main problems with vehicle inspection in Florida is that so many of the vehicles (over 60% in many areas) here are from out of state so the state vehicle inspection do nothing to weed out those.

When talking about state safety inspections always keep in mind that some accidents are caused purely by mechanical faults but in most cases (bad brakes, bad tires, bad headlights, bad wipers, cracked windshields, etc etc etc) the driver was aware of the fault before the accident and should have already fixed it.
 
Here in Florida, we did away with State “Safety” Inspections back in 1982 (or was it 1972). Best thing Florida ever did. There are no problems with accidents caused by “safety problems “.

That is a very low bar but I agree, that IS sadly the best thing Florida has ever done…lol
 
I remember Texas (Houston) inspections- mechanic drove your car around the shop/station lot. That was it. Always "failed" you for poorly adjusted headlights. You paid $10 for a needless aiming and went on your way. It was a joke.

That was exactly my experience with every car inspection that I ever had done in Virginia. Basically an extra $10, or more, fee on top of every inspection. $10 isn't much today but in mid 1970s when I was poor GI, it was a lot of money.

I concur with many others here, if a state is going to have state mandated vehicle inspection then it needs to be done by state employees and not local garages, or worse auto stealerships, that have a vested interest in failing the car and then forcing the owners to pay for unnecessary repairs or forcing them to buy another car so that they can get to work.
 
No mandatory vehicle inspections in MI. I sometimes think it’s so cars can come home to die. Plastic sheet windows, bungee trunk latches, etc.
 
No mandatory vehicle inspections in MI. I sometimes think it’s so cars can come home to die. Plastic sheet windows, bungee trunk latches, etc.
No inspections or front plates in MI. I'm good with that, but the roads suck.
 
No inspections or front plates in MI. I'm good with that, but the roads suck.
I'd like to know if anyone has done a study that compared the number of accidents caused purely by mechanical faults in the vehicle verses accidents caused by bad road conditions? If they did and they published the results publicly, I suspect that the states and the feds wouldn't have much choice but to drop all of the nonsense "safety" inspections and spend some money and actually fix the roads! Instead of sticking their citizens with another useless but expensive mandate.

I've lived all over the US and in several foreign countries and I can state for a fact that usually the only places that I see that consistantly have GOOD roads, are always in the state capitals!
 
As another poster asked for, if safety inspections are for safety, surely it shows up statistically in accident and crash data... Reality is there is no trend between states that have safety inspections and those that don't.

Interesting that many who live in states that have them feel like their states fleet of vehicles is safer than those with out. In my travels across the country I can certainly comment on general driving behavior, but the safety of cars on the road hasn't jumped out at me.

Ultimately, it's like the TSA to me. It makes some feel good, but is it that good?
 
When Utah eliminated the safety inspection in 2018, I was a big proponent of the change. It seemed to me that all the safety inspection did was guarantee an income for repair shops. Some repair shops seemed to take the state mandate seriously, and did a fair job. Others seemed to be too strict on some items. And other shops would sign off on almost anything.

Once a shop rejected your car, that same shop was the only ones that could sign off that it was Ok. Only exception was to have a Utah State Highway Patrol officer sign off on it. Who wants to bother a highway patrolman over a safety inspection?

When I lived in Kentucky, a young woman from a family we went to church with, was killed when the steering linkage failed in the old rust bucket truck that she was driving, and the car steered into a highway barrier. Would that senseless death have been avoided if Kentucky had a safety inspection? Perhaps. Maybe not, if they had found a shady shop to inspect the truck, because they didn't have the money to fix up the truck.

I'd like to think that, ultimately, each of us are responsible for our own highway safety. We should be watching the tread life on our tires. We should check our brakes regularly. And we should make sure all the lights work.

it may should harsh, but if someone doesn't know how to inspect their own car for safety, then they shouldn't be on the road. Perhaps one should have to demonstrate a basic knowledge of auto safety systems before getting a driver's license. A pilot has to perform a safety inspection before each flight. Is it asking too much for a driver to check their car from time to time?
 
At least now, once a year, they have to get the brake lights and other bulbs working again. It's kind of nice when all the brake lights light up in front of you rather than just 1 of the 3. It is a fool's errand to eliminate inspections but then we are more and more possessed of fools.
 
When I lived in Kentucky, a young woman from a family we went to church with, was killed when the steering linkage failed in the old rust bucket truck that she was driving, and the car steered into a highway barrier. Would that senseless death have been avoided if Kentucky had a safety inspection? Perhaps. Maybe not, if they had found a shady shop to inspect the truck, because they didn't have the money to fix up the truck.


it may should harsh, but if someone doesn't know how to inspect their own car for safety, then they shouldn't be on the road. Perhaps one should have to demonstrate a basic knowledge of auto safety systems before getting a driver's license. A pilot has to perform a safety inspection before each flight. Is it asking too much for a driver to check their car from time to time?

I completely agree with your 2nd paragraph. Basic car maintenance such as checking oil and how to change a tire should be mandatory for young drivers. I don't expect every young driver to be a DIY mechanic but they should be able to change a tire or jumper the battery so that they can get home safely and they should have some idea of how a car works and not just treat it like a driving simulator on a computer screen where you flip the switch and go. Making people read the Owner's Manual would be a good start!

Concerning your first paragraph, I've taken many many cars through the Florida vehicle inspection (back in the day) and the Virginia state inspection and neighter of those inspections would have found that impending steering link failure. That's part of problem with things like this, NO inspection or test is going to find every possible failure, especially one that haven't occurred yet, but when you mandate the tests everyone expect them to so they become even more complacent about caring for their cars.
 
I’ve seen cars with belts showing on tires. I’m not in favor of getting rid of inspections. I don’t care about emissions on an individual basis, but I definitely don’t want some person with their bald ass tires or no brakes hitting me.
 
Get people to take responsibility when they've been indoctrinated with participation trophies that tell them don't worry, be happy? Good luck with that one. Part of why we need to keep annual inspections. At least a good portion of the problems are caught and have to be corrected.
 
Can someone point me to any sort of study or statistic that indicates what percentage of accidents are caused by improperly maintained vehicles - because my guess is it’s pretty much zero.

No, but when it comes to your question about how many are caused by improperly maintained vehicles, your guess that it’s pretty much zero is just that, a guess. How many accidents are investigated that have no conclusion other than the driver lost control of the vehicle? What caused that loss of control? That part is not always disclosed clearly.
I understand that inspections could make things harder on people that are struggling to get by. I understand that there are shady shops that would take advantage of the situation. But with that said, I’ve seen countless vehicles with problems that are on the verge of the driver having a temporary, if not complete loss of control. (Anything from structural problems to headlamp assemblies that are so hazy that they can’t possibly see anything while driving at night.)
Like many things in life, there’s no real easy answer to it when it comes to this topic, because a lot of people have very good arguments for and against. Cheers. 🍻
 
Honestly, at the small shops in my county in NC, they don't even do real inspections. You just pay your fee and off you go. If your car still requires emissions inspection they scan for that but nothing else.

I do most of my own maintenance though so I keep my vehicles in shape.

If we have to have inspections, I'd prefer they focus on tires and brakes.
 
Tires, brakes, all outside lights, suspension and possibly one or two more things impacting safe operation to lessen their likelihood of hitting me or causing me to hit them like when 2 if not all 3 brake lights aren't working.
 

From what I've heard some States w/o inspections do them on the side of the road randomly? And of course you still gotta pay $7.50 fee. Of course......There are so many bad cars on the road that would never pass as it is.
Drivers will think they are better off till they get tickets for lights out. Will cost a lot more than the inspection would have. How is it in your State?

Being that the avg age of vehicles is increasing I guess people are having a hard time keeping their now older cars in compliance.
 
Here in Florida, we did away with State “Safety” Inspections back in 1982 (or was it 1972). Best thing Florida ever did. There are no problems with accidents caused by “safety problems “. If you get sropped by an LEO, or even if an LEO stops or parks next to you and sees bad tires, ticket time. If headlight out, or brake light out, ticket time. WE LIKE IT THAT WAY and if you don’t like that, don’t move or visit here.

When I lived in Western New York State, inspections every year. I think that price now is $35 or $40 and they ALWAYS FIND SOMETHING. I used to install a bad windshield wiper for them to ”find” as they have to find something. Another crazy rule is hat inspection had to be done indoors, not outdoors. Inspections just another way to screw the public.

Pennsylvania friends tell me that Pennsylvania no longer fails cars for having rust through holes. They used to fail cars for rust holes there.
If inspections weren't very good in the beginning how would you know whether an accident was caused by say poor tires vs poor driving?
 
If inspections weren't very good in the beginning how would you know whether an accident was caused by say poor tires vs poor driving?
In most states if there is a fatality or expected fatality the police shut traffic down and investigate, and that information goes to the NHTSA. 94 to 96% is there number for driver error, the other little bit is "everything else"

To your point, if you have poor tires, then you should leave more space :).
 
I didn't know Texas had vehicle inspections. They don't have any salt roads do they?



Nothing crazy but people are loathe to spend money on tires and brakes
 
If inspections weren't very good in the beginning how would you know whether an accident was caused by say poor tires vs poor driving?
You should watch some of the TV shows where they show the LE and insurance investigator doing accident reconstruction. They check the tires, measure the skid marks, talk to witnesses, look at the damage to both cars and the surrounding bushes, trees, buildings, etc, look at video footage if there is any, etc etc. They can even tell if your headlights and taillights were on and working at the time of the accident by the condition of the filament inside the bulb. Accident reconstruction is a well known science and a standard procedure in aircraft, train, space craft, truck and automobile accidents. Today, they can simple pull the car computer and read it and it will tell them the vehicle speed, how hard the accelerator pedal was being pushed, weather the brakes were being applied, steering angle of the steering wheel and even things like how loud the radio was on and if the windows or doors where open. The computer will also tell them what lights were on and if the lights were working or where burnt out. Erratic driving would be easy to detect by how rapidly the driver changed direction and changed their speed and whether they had to slam on brakes when they turned or stopped or if they coasted to a stop.

Around here, if there's a serious accident and if there is a death involved, the police will keep the road closed for 8 to 12 hours after the accident so that they can photograph and record everything and collect all of the evidence, etc.
 
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