Older cars to be tested
The Transport Department is pushing for amendments which will see cars older than 10 years being tested for roadworthiness every two years
OWNERS of cars older than 10 years will, from the end of this year, be required to have them tested for roadworthiness every two years.
The Transport Department also wants to ban the sale of parts taken from scrapped vehicles and regulate driving instructors.
These are some of the amendments to the National Road Traffic Act that the department wants to have enacted by December.
The proposed parts ban has been met with some resistance because of a possible hike in insurance premiums, but for the rest, most SA road users agree it to be a good idea.
Especially in rural Zululand, motorists have to deal with a large number of cars which are way past their expiry date.
They are a danger on the road and the cause of many accidents.
Most often it’s overloaded ‘bakkies’, held together by rust and bird droppings, travelling the speed of continental drift.
If the bodywork is in such a state of neglect, the under workings like brakes and suspension, cannot possibly be any better.
We also often see cars standing next to the road of which a wheel has just ‘fallen off’.
The road blocks which are held regularly all around Richards Bay and Empangeni, are not aimed at targeting dilapidated vehicles, so hopefully this new legislation will rid our roads of vehicles that are falling apart.
As for driving instructors; taking a learner driver, who doesn’t know the difference between the handbrake and gear lever into peak morning traffic, should be a criminal offence.
It creates immense frustration amongst road users, which in turn leads to dangerous situations.
To what extend driving instructors are going to be ‘regulated’ is still unclear, but hopefully it will include dedicated training areas, where first time drivers can familiarize themselves with vehicles controls, before driving out amongst other road users.
