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Re: MOT Time...

To: "alemen@pop.ftconnect.com" <alemen@pop.ftconnect.com>,
Subject: Re: MOT Time...
From: Douglas Braun & Nadia Papakonstantinou <dougnad@bellatlantic.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2000 13:12:03 -0400
At 12:16 PM 7/3/00 -0400, alemen@pop.ftconnect.com wrote:

>I was shocked to find that in my area (Portland, OR) all they did was 
>emissions testing. Even more shocked to find that outside the area there was 
>nothing. And all local standards, nothing federally mandated. Of course given 
>the volume of the number of cars it would be almost impossible to impose such 
>as thing as the MOT here. Also given the nature of the country it would also 
>be vehemently opposed as it would affect peoples rights - who cares about 
>safety. (Note that thsi is a personal observation and does not mean that those 
>of you on the list think this way, in fact I hope most of you would put safety 
>first). Hey think of it, a US MOT test - a big new industry, how many jobs 
>would it create, how many cars would have to be fixed up, look at the income 
>and parts potential for the auto industry.

I think that one of the reasons for the laxness here is that
mechanical problems are responsible for a fairly small number of driving
deaths and injuries.  I am sure that the DOT or NHTSA policymaking
people, who keep statistics on accidents, have concluded that new
vehicle standards, such as mandatory airbags, are more effective
at reducing the death/injury rate.  One reason for this is that
cards in the USA tend to be newer than in other countries.

One document that may be worthwhile reading is: 
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/ncsa/pdf/TSF97.pdf

Doug Braun
'72 Spit


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