VIENNA, Virginia — Having recently moved to Virginia, in part to flee the wretched misgovernance of Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, I did not expect to find a utopia of good, conservative, restrained government in Fairfax County.
Nevertheless, it was a rude awakening when I was forced to run a gauntlet of crony capitalism before I could legally operate my Toyota in the commonwealth.
Virginia requires all cars registered in the state to pass an annual 21-part safety inspection that has not been shown to make the roads safer and only exists because repair shops profit from the work. Such is the story of many regulations.
“Data show there is no connection between highway safety and these inspections,” former Gov. Ralph Northam said in 2019 when he proposed abolishing the inspection mandate. “That’s why 35 other states don’t have them.”
Experts and study results have varied, but Northam is right that there is no hard evidence that mandatory safety inspections improve highway safety. The main reason is that driver error or acts of God — rather than some broken car component — cause almost all accidents. Also, people have many opportunities to get faulty parts noticed and repaired besides these mandatory inspections.
It’s a tax on nothing.
Time to END inspections !!! Time to make Virginia allow Radar Detectors too !!! Like the other 49 states !!!!
Should have ended these Inpections years ago !!!! Democrats RUINED Virginia !!!!
If they’ve so preventive maintenance minded to “save lives”, instead have a free, no penalty periodic safety inspection, engaging insurance companies to offer incentives for keeping vehicles safe and roadworthy.