VACC warns blasé motorists to not ignore vehicle safety

By Matt Brogan | February 10th, 2010

Keeping in theme with our editor’s column today, the VACC has released some worrying photos which it claims prove motorists are deliberately ignoring the safety of their vehicles.

The images show worn or badly damaged vehicle components that, in some cases, are so bad drivers of the vehicle are lucky to have to have not been involved in a fatal accident.

Image 1: A brake rotor so badly worn that the outer surface was ground down to the cooling fins. The damage was so severe the central hub separated from the disc. This vehicle was an accident waiting to happen.

Image 2: A worn tyre with a patch so bald the metal casing was visible. Worryingly, this family vehicle was driven some 200 kilometres, from Melbourne to Benalla, before the owner was told the tyre was dangerous and that it must be changed immediately.

Image 3: A death-crack in the spoke of an alloy wheel. This could have caused the wheel to collapse, loss of control of the vehicle or the vehicle to roll over.

Image 4: A brake caliper worn down as a result of a wheel, not designed for the vehicle, being fitted. This could have led to a number of serious incidents including the wheel to seize, the caliper to lock and brake to fail.

“VACC repairers are reporting an increasing number of vehicles coming in to workshops that are in a dangerous condition. These photos are just the tip of the iceberg. Some drivers would have to be ignorant or stupid, or both, not to know there was a problem with their car,” VACC Executive Director, David Purchase, said.

“VACC has released the photographs because we want motorists, and the media, to see the alarming things we see on a daily basis,

“You would expect that the screeching noise of brake discs running metal on metal would alert a driver that something was wrong with their car. You would hope an alarm bell would ring in a driver’s mind when they saw the tread on their tyres was worn through and you would think a driver would spot a death crack in their wheel. But unfortunately, these images show us, that some motorists are blasé about vehicle safety,

“Of course, if a vehicle is regularly maintained, these issues are rectified before they become dangerous. VACC is so concerned about this that we have launched a Vehicle Safety campaign and appeal to motorists to think about vehicle safety and to have their car regularly serviced by a professional.”

toxic_horse

ABS and ESP won’t help these idiots.

http://www.caradvice.com.au Rhys

A bus or train pass would.

ABMPSV

In Germany if you buy a new car the first road worthy check is after 3 years after that is every 2 years. We should have it here!

toxic_horse

How come NSW is the only state that requires a yearly inspection?

Philthy

Bang on TH. I don’t understand why the other states don’t do it. Any of those problems above would be blindingly obvious to a mechanic who spent 5 minutes looking at a car.
davie

I live in NSW and wasn’t aware that other states (other than QLD) didn’t do yearly inspections?. I have seen some absolute rust buckets on QLD roads.

The yearly inspections used to be a pain back when I had a bomb and no money but at least they forced me to keep my car roadworthy and safe.

Some of those photos above are pretty worrying.
The Oracle

NSW have changed the requirement for the first inspection. It was previously at three years and is now not required until the vehicle is five years old. I just found this out as my car is three years old and I was expecting it to be inspected last month, when I renewed the rego. No one could tell me why the change. It is not too expensive, about $30 or so.

Dlr1

Agree, especially when you consider some people drive over 50,000 km per year, thats 250K or more before a roadworthy inspection. Id have no problem with new cars requiring an inspection after only 12 months, even if that is just to check the tyres are legal.
orfroader

Car parts are getting more reliable these days so the RTA doesn’t beleive an inspection on a new car is necessary for five years. Most models are still Current within this time and are still considered not to be old cars.

dan

It hasnt got to do with relaibility, as its the wear and tear items such as brakes, tyres etc

http://internode.on.net Peter

In NSW you now get the first 5 years (from new) without a certificate, then it’s yearly inspections after that.

I believe that 5 years is a bit too long having seen some of the 3 to 4 year old crap people try to sell here.

Maybe as ABMPSV said above – 3 years free then every year after.

Also, some years back on the news they had a story from Sth Aust. where their RTA and the Police set up a roadside checking station to inspect vehicles. Some of the horrors reported in this story were very worrying – like the bloke who only had 3 nuts on each wheel of his Falcon (I think he said that’s all it needed!) and the other car spewing oil everywhere when it was stopped. My point is maybe something could be setup similar to the mobile truck inspection stations. Anyway, that’s my two-bobs worth.

Peter

Good name, Peter. I am from Queensland, and I’m amazed at the rubbish we have on the roads. I’m even more amazed at the cavalier attitude of inspectors when you need to get a safety certificate before selling a car, though it might have tightened up over the past few years. If anyone relies on them instead of getting a mechanic to look over the car, they are insane.

scottwheels

I moved from Qld to the NT and was amazed that there were regular inspections required for cars here. Inspections here are required every 2 years after the car is 5 years old, then every year after the car is 10 years old. As the owner of a 12 year old car, the inspectors have picked up some things that the mechanic didn’t!
Paul

In the motor trade you see this rubbish all the time… especially the vented disc rotor. Unless they start giving IQ tests to everyone they hand a drivers license it will always happen. Stupid people are some dumb they don’t know how dumb they are!! Let drivers be aware plenty of old cars around them in traffic will have this kind of sh*t on them.

It’s not all about poor working class car owners, the authorities are just as guilty. Lets not forget the woe-ful state of public roads. There is NO scheduled road maintenance program in Australia. I drove down Parrammatta road yesterday and it felt like being in a light aircraft in rough weather. That road hasn’t been resurfaced in the last 40+ years that I’m aware of, probably not since it was built… yet 10s of thousands of people travel down it every day, that’s just as negligent as the idiot with brakes down to the metal!
Gary

Just the VACC trying to convince the Government that annual checkups are required so that their members can get more money. NSW has it and their road toll is higher than Victoria. Over 449 killed in NSW and 295 in Victoria.
i.e NSW population is 30% larger than Victoria but it’s road toll is 50% greater larger than Victoria.
It is not a simple as ‘annual car checks will save the day’.

AAA

+1
http://internode.on.net Peter

I see what you are saying, Gary, but you have to get the numbnuts and their cars off the streets somehow. Then maybe you can boast an even better road toll disparity with NSW.

By the way, on the latest complete figures I could find quickly (2008):
NSW 374 deaths 0.8 per 10,000 vehicles 5.4 per 100,000 population
Vic 303 deaths 0.8 per 10,000 vehicles 5.7 per 100,000 population

Regards,

Pete.

toxic_horse

NSW has a lot more longer distance stretches of country road. This could be a factor.

http://internode.on.net Peter

TH, I’d like to see some figures on average distance travelled by State as well. But from the figures above – NSW/Vic are pretty much on par.

mike

I was actually pleased to see a billboard the other day about buying used cars without air bags or something to that effect, rather than the usual “Wipe off 5″ diatribe.