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A Long Road for Car Inspections

April 8, 1997
By: Sarah Coleman
State Capital Bureau

The 28 year old Missouri law for car inspections is under inspection itself. Sarah Coleman has the story from Jefferson City.

Sarah Coleman
RunTime:
OutCue: SOC

The click and clank, and bellowing black clouds of smoke from Missouri cars may not be fixed by the law any longer.

A bill passed by the senate and now over in the house provides that annual car safety inspections be reduced to inspection only at the time of pruchase.

Bill supporter, state senator Sam Graves of Northwestern Missouri, says that the car inspections are important to the safety of Missouri drivers, but says the inspections are not neccesary every year.

Actuality:Sam Graves
RunTime:
OutCue: ...not a system being totally done away with.
Contents: ...and again I stress that we are not doing away with it completely. You would still have to get a car inspected when you purchase one, whenever it changes hands, so it is not a system totally being done away with.

But because of on-going problems and inconviences with the car inspection system, Graves says a change in the annual routine needs to be made.

The senator says the car inspections don't seem to work for the state and that unsafe cars still travel Missouri roads.

Actuality:Sam Graves
RunTime:
OutCue: ...somebody who will just put it through.


Contents: I don't think that system works. It doesn't keep cars off the road that are unsafe, simply because if you have a car that can't pass inspection, it is going to be easy to find someone who will just out it through.

Graves also says though that the inspections are an an inconvience...especially to his constituency that includes 16 rural counties.

The number of service staions that conduct inspections and are certified, correlate with the population of a particular city.

The St. Louis and Kansas City areas have the most stations.

The state of Missouri has 5,000 inspection stations and 15,000 certified inspectors.

Graves told the St. Joseph News-Press that people feel the inpections are a joke and that the yearly checks are not useful.

Yet opponents say there is a purpose to annual car check-ups.

They say if car inspections are reduced to a time of purchase inspection only, Missouri car owners will be in more danger.

Captain Gene Lacy of the Missouri State Highway Patrol says a study from 1992 to 1995 shows that one in every 105 cars involved in fatal accidents show safety defects that contribute to accidents.

He also says future car problems and higher bills are avoided through the current law.

Actuality:Captain Gene Lacy
RunTime:
OutCue: ...problem of a wrecked car and medical bills.
Contents: Car inspections make the possibility of fixing a wrecked car and possible medical bills due to mechanical problems almost non-existent.

Lacy and other opponents to the proposed legislation say that cars need the inspection due to the fact that as cars get older, the higher the risk of safety problems...that could be avoided through annual inspection.

Lacy says that to ensure that the car inspection law is enforced, undercover agents take their own cars in for the mandatory check-up.

If a faulty inspection is incurred, action is taken immeadiately.

Actuality:Captain Gene Lacy
RunTime:
OutCue: ...to answer the charges.


Contents: Two steps are taken if a fraudulent inspection is found. One is an administrative step while the other is issuing a traffic citation. Both routes make the service shops face punishment and possibly a court date.

A mid-Missouri car service shop owner and mechanic, Bob Bucheit, says that car inspections are vital for road safety and that he does not want them to be done away with.

Bucheit says that if car inspections are no longer mandatory, Missouri drivers may put off getting a car repaired.

Consequently, repair cost may be higher and he says Missouri drivers may then abandon their cars.

He says he believes service shops may become dumping grounds.

Bucheit also says too many people rely on the car inspections and that is another reason to keep them a part of Missouri lifestyles.

Actuality:Bob Bucheit
RunTime:
OutCue: ...fall apart or breakdown...
Contents: A lot of people use the safety inspections as a their maintenance reminder. They wait for that to have thier car looked at and if they don't have that to fall back on or as a reminder, then their cars are going to get in a worst state of disrepair and will need more repairs when they do fall apart or breakdown.

If the bill is passed, opponents say it will needlessly cost lives in Missouri.

According to Lacy, Missouri is inspecting 4.3 million cars annually. Out of these inspections, 1.1 million cars are failing the inspection process due to detected defects.

The opponents to the bill say that for $7, Missouri drivers can have peace of mind and a sense of safety about them on Missouri roadways.

Reporting from Jefferson City, I'm Sarah Coleman.