Health and safety turn about regarding UK MOTs
By catalady
@catalady (363)
August 19, 2010 12:22pm CST
In a national newspaper there has been a report that annual MOT's in the UK could be scrapped under Brussels led proposals and replaced with a two year car check/MOT. Of course this is still under discussion but I find it amazing that with the overzealousness concerning health and safety in every other area of life nowadays that this is even being discussed.
Apparently it would bring us in line with many other European countries who have been doing this periodic testing for the past 20 years - the annual MOT test has been in force in the UK for the past 50 years.
An elderly man driving over a period of 3 years might drive a third of the mileage of a company rep, yet both cars will be tested only every 2 years even though the reps car has had so much more use and so could be potentially more dangerous through wear and tear that has not been recognized or rectified.
What do other people think about this proposal?
What are the rules for car roadworthiness in other countries outside of Europe?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
19 Aug 10
We have to do a smog check every other year. Other than that, if the police see something obviously not right, they can pull you over and cite you and require you to get it fixed. There's not really any kind of scheduled inspections other than the smog check.
1 person likes this
@catalady (363)
•
19 Aug 10
Thanks Dawnald, I wasn't sure what happened in the USA. Here in Uk, as I said in my post every car over 3 years old has to have a yearly MOT ( Ministry Of Transport) test where many things are checked, tyres, exhaust emissions,brakes etc and if the car fails these tests it has to either be repaired or taken off the road ( of course there are people who flout this law ) and you cannot get either Road Tax or Insurance without a current MOT
2 people like this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
19 Aug 10
We can't register our car without the smog test, and I'd imagine if the police saw something that made it not roadworthy, that we'd have to fix it before we could register the car, but you can get away with a lot here. If there's no visible reason to pull somebody over, the car could be in really bad shape and they wouldn't know it.
1 person likes this
@AutumnGold (1056)
•
19 Aug 10
Hello Cat. I think road safety will decrease as a result of this ridiculous idea. The current government (public school educated toffs) forget that a large percentage of people own cars that are ten years old or more and are more likely to fail an annual MOT so twelve months after that idea comes into force the roads will be half full of unroadworthy vehicles. If the government wants to start a job creation scheme for paramedics and undertakers then it's a great idea but apart from that I think it should be a non starter. Surely vehicles over a certain age should be tested more frequently, not less.
