Road safety is always at the center of the conversation, but now even more, because a mechanic has gone viral on TikTok after showing a car that had its tires changed shortly before being taken to his shop… And no one had noticed how dangerous it was.
Sparks (@sparkscarcare) reported in his video that the lack of mandatory inspections means that, like that one, there are thousands of vehicles circulating on our roads and they are a danger to the world!!
What happened?
A woman took her car to a shop to have the wheels changed, everything seemed normal, but a couple of weeks later she went to see Sparks, and Sparks could not believe what he was seeing in that car that supposedly had been checked by a mechanic.
“Why are there no mandatory vehicle inspections?” Sparks denounces.
In the video you can see how the car was practically impossible to handle, the steering bar was coming off, the tie rods were loose… A real danger for the roads.
The regulations
The reality is that in the United States there is no standard for mandatory vehicle inspections, which means that each state decides its own rules and it ends up becoming a strange system with many legal loopholes… and many accidents…
Today only 14 states require periodic safety inspections, others limit themselves to emissions tests to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, and some have eliminated all requirements…
For example, Texas has stopped requiring the annual safety inspection for most vehicles, although it maintains the emissions test in certain counties. In Maryland, on the other hand, the inspection is mandatory only when a car is bought or transferred.
What happens when there are no controls
Sparks’ video is not an isolated case, there will be thousands of cars driving on our roads with loose tie rods, damaged steering or critical parts on the verge of failure that keep circulating because no one forces them to be inspected.
In Europe for example, vehicles in that condition would be removed immediately. In the United States, on the other hand, everything depends on a traffic officer detecting something at first glance, which rarely happens!
The economic debate
Yes, they are an extra expense for drivers… And they do not always reduce accidents, but does a check cost more or lamenting more accidents with everything that implies? Human losses, property losses and the repairs that must be made on the roads in case any damage occurs…
The problem is that many owners cannot afford repairs that cost thousands of dollars. Even when they know their car has a serious fault, they postpone it. Here safety, family economy and trust in shops intersect.
Certified professionals, but…
Yes, there is the ASE certification (National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence), many shops require it to hire mechanics, and there are also specific manufacturer credentials or EPA certifications for air conditioning systems, but they do not replace a mandatory check of each vehicle that is on the roads.
Too many gaps
It is useless to adjust driving regulations if there is no control that specifies whether our cars are fit to be on the road or if they are a real danger to other drivers, right? And here a very interesting debate arises, is it better to trust individual responsibility and the market, or to implement a national standard that guarantees safer roads? While it is decided, the truth is that thousands of cars with serious faults will continue to run without anyone supervising them…
@sparkscarcare The amount of people out there that shouldn’t be or aren’t qualified to work on a motor vehicle is actually sickening #jeep #auto #automotive #carrepair #carmechanic #tiktokautocampaign #maintenance #mechaniclife #mechanicsoftiktok #bluecollar #safety #car #fyp #inspection ♬ original sound – Sparks