With state and local governments feeling the budget pinch in a still-struggling economy, lawmakers are looking for programs to trim. Washington, D.C., recently announced it would discontinue its periodic vehicle safety inspections.
The D.C. council noted a lack of any data showing periodic inspections made for safer roads. It expects an annual savings of $400,000 by eliminating the program.
There are 19 states that require safety inspections for vehicles, but the efficacy of these programs has often come under dispute, especially when considering the cost.
Pennsylvania, for instance, conducts 11 million inspections a year at a cost of around $300 million. The state only pays $1.5 million of that with the rest coming from car owners who shell out $16-$23 per inspection. Pennsylvania commissioned a study this year that determined the inspections save roughly 125 lives a year.
While having a mechanic tell you your brakes are faulty could prevent an accident, these programs are politically unpopular. That’s probably the reason Congress in 1976 took away the U.S. Transportation Department’s authority to withhold highway funds from states without inspection programs.
Other than the Pennsylvania study, there is little data to prove that inspections improve safety on America’s roads.
University of Dayton economics professor Marc Poitras conducted a 2002 study of the cost-effectiveness of inspection programs and came to the conclusion that the true “tip-off” is that insurance companies don’t care about inspections.
“If inspections were effective,” he told USA Today, “then insurance companies would study these things and be on the lookout for data that would prove they lower costs.”
