NHTSA, trade groups spar over vehicle inspections

According to NHTSA, all of them “believe (safety inspections) should be performed annually and disagree with NHTSA's recommendation for periodic inspections.

“They expressed concern that the revised language could impact the effectiveness of the guideline if states moved from a required annual inspection to longer intervals between inspections,” the agency said.

However, NHTSA disagreed, saying the decision of times between inspections should be left up to the states.

“Nothing in the revised guideline would prevent a state from maintaining an annual inspection process,” the agency said.

“NHTSA believes the research on the general effectiveness of (safety inspections) is inconclusive, and does not warrant a more prescriptive approach.”

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NHTSA's recommended Highway Safety Program Guideline No. 1

Periodic Motor Vehicle Inspection

Each State should have a program for periodic inspection of all registered vehicles to reduce the number of vehicles with existing or potential conditions that may contribute to crashes or increase the severity of crashes that do occur, and should require the owner to correct such conditions.

I. An inspection program would provide, at a minimum, that:

   A. Every vehicle registered in the State is inspected at the time of initial registration and on a periodic basis thereafter as determined by the State based on evidence of the effectiveness of inspection programs.

   B. The inspection is performed by competent personnel specifically trained to perform their duties and certified by the State.

   C. The inspection covers systems, subsystems, and components havingsubstantial relation to safe vehicle performance.

   D. Each inspection station maintains records in a form specified by the State, which includes at least the following information:

• Class of vehicle.
• Date of inspection.
• Make of vehicle.
• Model year.
• Vehicle identification number.
• Defects by category.
• Identification of inspector.
• Mileage or odometer reading.

   E. The State publishes summaries of records of all inspection stations at least annually, including tabulations by make and model of vehicle.

II. The program should be periodically evaluated by the State and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should be provided with an evaluation summary.

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 Whereas advocates of annual safety inspections cite results of studies performed in Pennsylvania and Missouri, a similar study performed in Norway showed no safety benefits from requiring annual inspections, NHTSA said.

In their combined comments from July 20, 2012, the RMA and TIA cited the Pennsylvania and Missouri studies, and also noted that only 19 states have any safety inspection requirements at all.

“Tires are the only part of a vehicle to touch the road,” the associations said. “Tires that are underinflated, overloaded, worn or damaged are at risk of failure that can lead to a crash.

“While an annual vehicle inspection that includes tires will not completely reverse such widespread neglect of tire maintenance, it can both reduce the incidents of tire failure and help educate more motorists about the importance of tire care,” they said.

The RMA and TIA suggested NHTSA explore the idea of incentive grants to persuade states to establish safety inspections, as well as withholding federal highway funds from states that don't have inspection programs.

However, NHTSA rejected this suggestion. The new requirements for tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) — part of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 138 and 139 — coupled with existing criteria for inspections, makes further action unnecessary, it said.

The effects of these rules are expected to continue to increase with time as market penetration increases, the agency said, as well as “reduce any potential benefit of a PMVI assessment of tires.”