We all know of the senseless tragedy that is impaired driving. Or the thousands killed by texting and otherwise distracted driving. Equally appalling is the effect of driving while exhausted. Innumerable lives are touched or ended by these preventable incidents.
But, what about operating a vehicle you are fully aware has one or more safety related defects? How is driving home while knowing that your vehicle’s brakes are completely worn out any different to responding to a text in traffic and not getting caught?
In my work life, I see every day people make absolutely conscious decisions to drive vehicles a licensed technician has demonstrated are undeniably unsafe. I hear comments such as “It’s just a work truck”, “It’s my second car”, or most recently “My wife just uses it to take the kids to school and back”. I do not have adequate vocabulary to describe how disgusted I feel when I hear these types of comments.
I used to mark it down to ignorance, so I decided to try and educate customers further, take things apart enough for the customer to see the actual defect. Nope, still heard “It’s not that bad”. People whose only qualification is to drive the vehicle, making unfounded judgements as to it’s mechanical integrity.
Judgements which affect the lives of their family and others.
Still prevalent in my industry is the “$100 safety”. We’ve all heard of it, the “technician” all too willing to write a safety slip for anyone, often for vehicles they haven’t even seen, for five crisp twenties. Irresponsible and reprehensible behaviour which is accepted as commonplace in an industry struggling with it’s public image. I’ve been asked to do this and been nothing less than insulted, going as far in some instances, as to tell the customer their business is no longer welcome at my shop.
I’m a firm believer if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. I’m also acutely aware I can only be responsible for the actions which take place at my shop.
Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have considered the merits of an annual safety inspection. For such a program to work properly the inspections would have to be performed at Provincially-run inspection centres. Not licensed shops like the ones I’ve always worked at, but actual Ministry of Transport inspection stations. Any defects could be repaired at a licensed facility such as mine, then return to the Inspection station to confirm the repairs conform to Ministry guidelines. Such a program would ensure safer vehicles on the roads as well as eliminating the disreputable malcontents polluting my industry with “safeties for sale”.
Is such a program feasible? Oh, hell no.
But we need something.
The number of patently unsafe vehicles I see every week is astonishing. I understand financial struggles, but if one can’t afford the repair how is one to afford the carnage from the potential accident?
And we have no recourse. The idea that we, as mechanics, can remove license plates from unsafe vehicles is untrue. We cannot. Can the authorities – the MTO or the police do more? It would seem that either they can’t or, perhaps more accurately, they won’t.
A few years ago, I inspected a vehicle with defects to numerous to detail here. Suffice to say it was a death trap. The vehicle’s owner lived in my neighbourhood. I informed the owner how devastatingly dangerous the vehicle was and it should not be on the road. The owner assured me the vehicle would be parked.
Each day for the next three weeks I witnessed the vehicle in the neighbourhood and on busy London streets. I knew none of the required repairs had been performed, I had called the owner to confirm. Feeling the sting of a guilty conscience, I called the Ministry of Transportation to report the vehicle. I was promptly told there was nothing they could do and I should inform the police. Being ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ I called the London Police Service who told me there was nothing for them to do and I should call the Ministry. I chewed 2 Tylenol 3’s and told the officer I had, indeed, spoken to the Ministry. The police simply said they could not get involved until there was an accident.
Until there was an accident.
There simply must be a better way. A means to protect the public from unsafe vehicles. Information campaigns focussing on the consequences of unsafe vehicles on our roads. Road side safety blitzes with the ability to pull plates from vehicles that fail. Increased enforcement in the safety inspection stations.
Any combination of the above and more.
If a vehicle is mechanically unfit, it’s at least as dangerous as if it were operated by a drunk, a sleep deprived person or a person with a cell phone.
They’re all weapons with wheels.