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VACC: One-in-three vehicles unsafe

By Matt Brogan |

The VACC, Victoria’s peak automotive industry body, is concerned that too many unsafe vehicles are being driven on the State’s roads following a survey of 2304 vehicles, tested by participating members.

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Of the vehicles tested, 829 (or 35.98 per cent) failed one or more of the five key safety areas.

“These figures are alarming,” VACC Executive Director, David Purchase said “There is a slight improvement compared to the year-on-year figures from 2007, but to think every third vehicle on Victoria’s roads, according to the survey, is unsafe and could endanger lives is very worrying. It is all the more frustrating to know that these defects are ones that could easily be averted”.

With the festive season seeing more of us take to the roads, the survey comes as a timely warning to get your car checked thoroughly before a trip away. Additional loads, longer trips and higher speeds may highlight problems with your car not normally noticed in the morning commute.

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“We want motorists to have a happy and safe holiday period. It is important that people have their vehicles checked for defects and correctly maintained to better ensure the safety of all road users over the holiday period. A simple Five Point Safety Check of the critical safety features of a car – tyres, lights, steering, brakes and restraints – will reduce the incidence of death, injury, and property damage” Mr Purchase said.

If you are at all concerned as to the upkeep of your vehicle, a free safety check is offered at participating Bunnings stores in the weekends leading up to the Christmas break. Most local garages or dealerships can also provide a safety inspection for a nominal fee.


 
  • http://navelcontemplation.blogspot.com Supercujo

    Probably a higher percentage in WA where there are no vehicle roadworthiness inspections for the majority of cars. Taxis and SCVs get a yearly trip over the pits, but the rest of us never see an inspection other than when we either register a new car or get the plates changed over from another state.

    Whatever government brings in annual or bi-annual vehicle inspections will be doing the right thing, but it will be political suicide.

    And in addition to the safety aspect, there is also the emissions of a poorly maintained car being much, much higher.

  • WVB

    What does bunnings know about cars?
    So you finally manage to get the attention of the disinterested spotty faced university student at a bunnings store paying his/her way thru uni and isn’t much help with paint/timber or toilet cisterns can point out potential hazards with your car’s braking system?
    Come off it. Get a dealer to sort it

  • http://www.caradvice.com.au Matt

    It’s only held at Bunnings (in the car park), not done by Bunnings. They arrange a local motoring group to do the actual inspection.

  • http://www,jocman.com runnaln

    As speed is the major factor in 90% of accidents can’t see why VACC are wasting there time, this will not be a saftey issue, unless they can build a roadisde scanner that checks vehicle saftey (Perhaps thats what the Box above is) and fine drivers 3 mnths later.

  • Alan

    I agree with Supercujo that annual or bi-annual vehicle inspection should be made compulsory. Tyre with little tread left is very dangerous in the wet and can cause skidding. Not to mention poorly maintain vehicles are more polluting and more fuel consuming adding to the CO2 problem.

  • http://navelcontemplation.blogspot.com Supercujo

    Runnaln: My sarcasm detector may be a bit faulty because I didn’t detect any sarcasm in your comment.

  • MisterTwo

    These statistics are not surprising considering the number of old heaps which drive around on Australian Roads. The average age of cars in Australia is 10 years, whereas most other developed countries this average is closer to 5 years.

  • Mark Greenburg

    MisterTwo – I can’t agree with you more. Only in Australia do you still see 30+ year old vehicles driven as daily drivers. I’m in a well off inner urban area of Melbourne and on a 10 minute drive down to the shops I can pass a few old XB/XC Falcons, VW Beetles (old ones, and not restored jobs), Kingswoods, even an old banged up Matador sedan. In the US, you would struggle to spot a vehicle over 10-12 years old in a typical urban/suburban parking lot (even in the warmer states where cars aren’t affected by rust as much). Although I should mention the US average is no where near 5 years – it is actually not too far off our average. Theirs is about 8.6 years while our average is around 9.8 years.

  • Captain Mainwaring

    So one in three vehicles are unsafe. This may well be true, but even casual observation would conclude that one in 1.5 drivers are unsafe. Which do we fix first?
    The statistical mathematicians amongst us would no doubt conclude that when you combine the two (unsafe cars with unsafe drivers) you will end up with a huge problem, and it is a real issue that the stupidest drivers tend to end up in the most unsafe cars.
    Because they are stupid they are at the bottom of the socio-economic heap, so not only can’t they drive intelligently but they can’t afford to buy a more modern, safer car. So do we stop stupid people from getting a license, or do we just keep having traffic laws designed for the lowest common denominator?

  • Cupid Stunt aka No Name

    Now read this story in consideration with the speed camera item then the pollies night realise the two are very closely related. So spend the camera fines on vehicles inspector spot checks and prosecute unraodworthy car.

    Totally agree with the annual roadworthy. It done here and works a treat, No MOT test, no roadfund license, no roadfund = prosecution. If your rego was related to a test then the same rules could apply.

    I was frankly amazed at the age of car considered driveable when I live in Mel. Indeed the vehicles we owned I wouldn’t have driven them out of the burbs on a run and they had roadworthies. The standards seem whoefully inadequate.

  • FRUGAL_ONE

    I think its more than 1 in 3 being a s/box on our roads.

    Bring on annual RWC inspections done by GovCo run inspection stations.

    Get then junkboxes off our roads,

    Cheers

    F-0

  • Ken from the NT

    The Northern Territory has annual inspections for vehicles over 10 years old, bi-annual inspections for vehicles less than 10 years.

    Vehicle registration can be a pain in the proverbial, but I’ve certainly had a few defects in my vehicle that were picked up by the rego inspectors. Certainly some inspectors are a bit more thorough than others. Yet even on Territory roads, I see vehicles that should be defected still driving merrily along. The police need pull these vehicles off the road and defect them.

    Instead, our Territory government is still perpetuating the myth that speed is the only danger on our roads, so has reduced speed limits and imposed higher fines for speed offences. Meanwhile our road-toll is higher than before!