The House Transportation Committee voted, 18-0, to recommend killing a bill to get rid of annual safety inspections for non-commercial vehicles. New Hampshire is one of only 16 states that require these inspections in some form; all vehicles in this state also undergo annual checks of emission systems.
The House Transportation Committee voted, 18-0, to recommend killing a bill to get rid of annual safety inspections for non-commercial vehicles. New Hampshire is one of only 16 states that require these inspections in some form; all vehicles in this state also undergo annual checks of emission systems.
CONCORD — A bipartisan group of lawmakers said Tuesday New Hampshire should do away with mandatory auto safety inspections for noncommercial cars and trucks.
But auto repair experts, auto dealers and state law enforcement officials said required inspections uncover hundreds of thousands of mechanical defects that prevent serious or even fatal car crashes.
State Rep. Casey Conley, D-Dover, said there’s no national study that confirms a correlation between inspections and fewer crashes.
“Safety inspections, while a good idea, are not something that should be mandatory,” Conley said, speaking on behalf of his bill (HB 1426). “There is no data linking safety inspections to better outcomes and more safety on the roadway.”
Currently, 36 states don’t require annual safety inspections, but New Hampshire and all its neighbors do.
Annual emissions tests would still be required under Conley’s bill.
And commercial vehicles would still have to be inspected every year.
The state Department of Safety said the change would reduce revenue for its budget by $720,000 a year. Cities and towns would also receive about $80,000 less in state highway aid.
Bill Gurney of Gurney’s Auto Repair in Nashua and Milford said over his 46-year career he’s seen countless car owners stunned to learn their cars or trucks have dangerous safety defects.
“We are dealing with peoples’ livelihoods, their families, their children and their grandchildren,” Gurney said. “Fixing cars is what I do, but taking care of people and their families is really what we do.”
Stephen Zemanek of Manchester, a self-described “avid do-it-yourselfer,” said on several occasions he’s caught service shop operators who tried to saddle him with expensive repairs he didn’t need.
“Inspection time becomes this anxiety-producing thing as I don’t know what I will be stuck with,” Zemanek said.
Average failure rate 15%
Over the past five years, the average inspection failure rate has been 15%, according to Jeff Oberdank, a bureau chief with the state Division of Motor Vehicles.
In 2021, there were 217,871 violations found among the more than 1.5 million inspections, he said.
Dan Bennett, vice president of government relations with the New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association, believes the actual rate of defects is much higher than that.
That’s because many drivers, once they learn their brakes or tires failed inspection, get them fixed and then get a passing grade, he said.
A new state law in 2021 started alerting inspection customers about open recalls for their vehicles.
This led to more than 170,000 notices going out from July to December 2021, Bennett added.
Safety inspections are more important in states with long winters that beat up a car body’s integrity, he said.
But Conley pointed to several states with rough winters that don’t have safety inspections, including Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado and Alaska.
The state police and New Hampshire Motorcyclists’ Rights Organization also opposed the bill.
The Legislature has typically rejected past attempts to eliminate safety inspections.
The last time the proposal came before the House for a vote was the day two years ago when COVID-19 was first confirmed in New Hampshire, Conley said.
His bill and dozens of others were put aside and died from inaction later that year.
