Texas Might Ditch Its Mandatory Vehicle Safety Inspection After 67 Years

The Texas senate just voted to get rid of the state's mandatory vehicle safety inspection, The Houston Chronicle reports. This means all noble Texans should get ready to head to a scrapyard, buy whatever clapped out piece of crap their heart has been yearning for all these years, and enjoy the open road. The shoulder of the open road, if we're honest.

The newspaper says the Senate voted 27-4 to approve Senate Bill 1588, which calls for the removal of a 67 year-old statewide policy mandating vehicle safety inspections for personal vehicles.

State Senator Don Huffines told the Houston Chronicle that it all comes down to saving taxpayers money—$130 million to be exact. That's how much he says Texans are paying annually for what Huffines calls "a procedure that has proven to have no discernible safety benefit to drivers."

He took it even further than that, going on to criticize the policy, declaring: "I look at this as an unnecessary procedure that should be eliminated."

Of course, despite the slew of votes in support of the Bill, not everyone was thrilled that the road may soon be filled with crap-cans. Senator Eddie Lucio went so far as to say he's "going to have trouble sleeping knowing that there will be thousands of dangerous vehicles on the road."

The Bill, which still has to go through the House before it could go into effect in March of 2018, applies only to personal vehicles. Commercial vehicles would still be subject to annual safety inspections, and smog testing would continue in 17 counties.

I myself have written that all states should have mandatory, but very simplified, safety inspections. My main point there was that there are a handful of parts failures that I consider "silent killers," namely rusty brake lines, bad ball joints, and worn tie-rod ends. These three critical components can go bad without obvious warning signs, leading to sudden and unexpected accidents.

Inspecting those few things doesn't have to take any more than three or four minutes, and can prevent potentially devastating accidents.

That said, failure of these components is hugely accelerated by corrosion, something that Texas doesn't really have to deal with. So my stance on mandatory vehicle inspections in dry states is much softer than it is for places like Michigan. Up here, we should definitely have (simplified) safety inspections.

But maybe the Yugo should move down there.