MOT Rule Change Could Risk Lives

Following the recent news that Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore called on the Department for Transport (DfT) to pay more attention to tyre age during MOT inspections, the NTDA has reported that it has also written to DfT on the subject of statutory testing. While not on the subject of tyre ageing, the NTDA’s letter referred to the fact that some quarters are suggesting that the currently annual mandatory roadworthiness test be made a bi-annual requirement. The DfT’s mailbag is set to get fatter still when Tyre Industry Federation (TIF) are reportedly due to put pen to paper on the subject as well. According to the latest NTDA e-zine email newsletter, the NTDA raised the matter at last month's TIF board meeting. A template is reportedly available for members who wish to make their own views felt on this very safety critical subject.

The NTDA reports that the subject was thoroughly reviewed over an extended period from 2005 ending in November 2008 when the then Secretary of State for Transport, in consultation with Cabinet colleagues, concluded that it would risk a “totally unacceptable increase in road deaths and serious injuries as well as an unacceptable increase in cost to the economy.”

In a letter to the Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Transport Mike Penning, NTDA chair David White maintained nothing has changed since that analysis by the DfT, the most comprehensive on the subject ever undertaken, the key road safety conclusions of which were: “Moving to 4.2.2. would risk an additional annual 400 road deaths (18 per cent over a record low of 2,222) per year …[and] an additional 2,500 serious injuries per year (DfT).”

Answer our question of the month to give your views on tyre ageing and MOT tests.

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