5 ms·

California appears to have an annual safety inspection, which many US states do not. According to the NHTSA, 6.8% of crashes involved a vehicle with a significa

by Zak 4y ago

California appears to have an annual safety inspection, which many US states do not. According to the NHTSA, 6.8% of crashes involved a vehicle with a significant safety fault, which was not necessarily a causal factor in the crash. 4.9% of crash vehicles had a tire or wheel defect. This suggests to me that there probably isn't a desperate need for stricter vehicle inspections in the US. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811059 https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/... (PDF)

trgn 4y ago
> there probably isn't a desperate need for stricter vehicle inspections in the US. American drivers take awful care of their cars. bald tyres, ripped off bumpers, worn brakes, ... It's shocking coming back from (western) europe from vacation this summer, how trash the cars are on the road here. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
- Zak 4y ago
  I've seen it. I may have even participated in it. The difference you've observed definitely exists, but there's a big difference between: * That car looks crappy * That car looks unsafe * The kind of maintenance shortcomings present on that car are correlated with a large increase in crash rate
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
toast0 4y ago
> California appears to have an annual safety inspection I'm pretty sure you're mistaken. In many urban counties, there's an every other year emissions inspection (Smog Check), but that's not looking for safety issues. And for most post-2000 cars, it's a quick visual inspection under the hood, read the ODB-II emissions readiness status, and pump the throttle and look for smoke (might be diesel only), older cars that are 1975 or newer get a probe in the tailpipe at idle and 15?mph on a dyno, even older cars don't get checked.
sentientslug 4y ago
CA does not have any sort of safety inspection, not sure where you’re getting that from.
- Zak 4y ago
  Reading summaries in the results of a very quick web search. I stand corrected. My main point, however is that the NHTSA report found poorly maintained vehicles are a factor in fairly few crashes. The vast majority of the crash vehicles that did have a maintenance issue had a tire/wheel problem. Making a guess based on my experience with cars, the problem is probably almost always worn or underinflated tires. That's something a person with 5 minutes of training can check in 5 minutes with tools that cost $10. Perhaps there's better data available, but the report I linked seems to suggest comprehensive vehicle inspections wouldn't have much more impact on crashes than quick tire checks.

by Zak 4y ago

trgn 4y ago

> there probably isn't a desperate need for stricter vehicle inspections in the US. American drivers take awful care of their cars. bald tyres, ripped off bumpers, worn brakes, ... It's shocking coming back from (western) europe from vacation this summer, how trash the cars are on the road here. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Zak 4y ago
I've seen it. I may have even participated in it. The difference you've observed definitely exists, but there's a big difference between: * That car looks crappy * That car looks unsafe * The kind of maintenance shortcomings present on that car are correlated with a large increase in crash rate
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

toast0 4y ago

> California appears to have an annual safety inspection I'm pretty sure you're mistaken. In many urban counties, there's an every other year emissions inspection (Smog Check), but that's not looking for safety issues. And for most post-2000 cars, it's a quick visual inspection under the hood, read the ODB-II emissions readiness status, and pump the throttle and look for smoke (might be diesel only), older cars that are 1975 or newer get a probe in the tailpipe at idle and 15?mph on a dyno, even older cars don't get checked.

sentientslug 4y ago

CA does not have any sort of safety inspection, not sure where you’re getting that from.

Zak 4y ago
Reading summaries in the results of a very quick web search. I stand corrected. My main point, however is that the NHTSA report found poorly maintained vehicles are a factor in fairly few crashes. The vast majority of the crash vehicles that did have a maintenance issue had a tire/wheel problem. Making a guess based on my experience with cars, the problem is probably almost always worn or underinflated tires. That's something a person with 5 minutes of training can check in 5 minutes with tools that cost $10. Perhaps there's better data available, but the report I linked seems to suggest comprehensive vehicle inspections wouldn't have much more impact on crashes than quick tire checks.