A Missouri lawmaker’s proposal to eliminate vehicle inspection requirements was met with plenty of opposition Monday night.
House Bill 451 would remove the safety inspection requirement for noncommercial vehicles. Currently, inspections are required every other year once a vehicle is five years old. The proposed bill would also require inspections of all homemade trailers. Current law only requires inspection of trailers longer than 16 feet.
State Rep. J. Eggleston, R-Maysville, the bill’s sponsor, cited several statistics, including a 2012 study by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, that he said indicated little difference in safety between states that required inspections and those that do not.
He also cited the cost to Missourians. “Our citizens are having to shell out $30 million a year to comply with this regulation,” Eggleston said. “If we got rid of that, that is essentially a $30 million tax cut to our citizens” without cost to the state.
Eggleston was followed by multiple speakers who offered opposing testimony and dueling statistics, coming from members of the AFL-CIO, retired garage owners, residents and others involved with safety inspections.
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