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By KELLY HANNON
Stafford Tire & Auto does about 2,000 vehicle safety inspections in a year.
Out of every 10 vehicles it checks, typically one car or truck needs repairs to pass, said Darwin Crawford, a manager at the inspection station on U.S. 17.
So, he was surprised to hear Gov. Tim Kaine has proposed dropping vehicle inspections as an annual requirement.
If Kaine's budget proposal is adopted by the General Assembly, vehicle inspections would be required once every two years. The price would be $20, instead of the annual $16 fee.
Postponing inspections may be popular with motorists, who crowd inspection stations at the end of every month to beat the deadline.
But the change will lead to unsafe vehicles driving Virginia roads, said Crawford, who oversees state inspections at Stafford Tire & Auto. "Those repairs that are needed now, if you go two years, it's going to be even worse," Crawford said.
The problem is not limited to older models, he said.
"We had a car in here, a 2006, with no brake lights. It had 26,000 miles on the car and no brake lights and the driver didn't know it," Crawford said.
Between 7 and 7.5 million vehicles are inspected every year in Virginia, according to Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller.
State Police receives 50 cents from every $16 inspection fee. Moving the inspections to every other year for motorists means state police will lose around $1.8 million, Geller said.
Efforts to get an opinion on the measure from AAA Mid-Atlantic were unsuccessful yesterday.
The move would also affect 4,300 safety inspection stations around the state, and their 14,000 certified inspectors.
Vehicle inspection laws vary widely from state to state.
Like Virginia, North Carolina requires an annual safety inspection.
Maryland requires vehicle safety inspections when a title changes hands, said Buel C. Young, Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration spokesman.
So Maryland drivers only need a safety inspection when they purchase a vehicle, and in most cases, new cars and trucks have already been inspected.
The District of Columbia requires a safety inspection once every two years.
Changing the vehicle safety inspections in Virginia will not affect the schedule for emissions testing, a requirement for Northern Virginia residents including Stafford County.
Emissions testing will still be required for cars in Stafford once every two years.
Staff librarian Craig Schulin contributed to this story. Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436| SAFETY INSPECTIONS VARY BY STATE
Florida has no safety inspections. Nevada requires new state residents to get their cars inspected. District of Columbia Maryland requires inspections when a vehicle title changes hands. North Carolina has annual inspections. |