A state-sponsored study said the program should be kept and expanded; study author joins Y’all-itics.
DALLAS — In 2025, most Texans will no longer be required to have their vehicles inspected.
But you’ll still have to pay the fee.
Drivers in 17 counties, however, will still face annual tests because of emissions requirements.
Those counties are Brazoria, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, El Paso, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Johnson, Kaufman, Montgomery, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis and Williamson.
Those who support the change argued the inspections were a costly waste of time that modern vehicles make obsolete.
Those who want to keep inspections argue they help keep drivers safe by flagging vehicles with problems.
It turns out that a few years ago, the state actually sponsored a study that concluded vehicle inspections were not only highly effective but should likely be expanded.
That study’s author recently joined Y’all-itics and told the Jasons he’s surprised lawmakers dumped the program.
Dr. Michael Murphy says when inspections temporarily went away a few years ago, bad things happened.
“I will just say this, during the pandemic, when vehicle safety inspection stations were closed for a period of time, the number of defect vehicle fatalities, type A and Type B injuries, increased,” Dr. Murphy said.
Dr. Murphy says he hopes law enforcement will continue to document crashes that involved vehicles with defects to see if those numbers rise once again. And he stresses that just because the state won’t require an inspection, drivers can still get their vehicles checked out on their own.
Dr. Murphy says when they were talking to people for the study, there was one group in particular that didn’t think inspections were necessary.
“The people in our survey that said they didn’t think the inspection program was needed were primarily males. And in the comment section, they said, I, blankety-blank, know how to take care of my car. I own eight vehicles, motorcycles, pickup trucks, cars, I know how to take care of them,” he said. “And I understand that. I’d like to be that mechanically sharp. But what they weren’t considering is not everyone is like that. Not everyone has the physical ability to do a vehicle inspection.”