Motors Trades Association WOF campaign

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By Roscoe Lord on Sat, 13 Oct 2012
MTA | Motors Trades Association | WOF | space saver tyre. | Your Town: Dunedin | MTA | Motors Trades Association | Stronach | WOF | space saver tyre

Some time ago the Motors Trades Association campaigned against the banning (for safety reasons) of space saver tyres being sold with cars. It would have cost their members.

Currently they are campaigning against Warrant of Fitness changes. It will cost their members.

I am unconvinced of their overriding concern for the motorist's safety.

With regards to MTA marketing and communications manager Ian Stronach's reply to Mel R Tapp (13/10/12) quoting ". . . serious crashes in Christchurch found 22% had no WOF".

Were the crashes attributable to car faults? Did the drivers of those cars have a higher crash rate than average drivers?

 

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Simple solution

Submitted by SwampyVillager on Wed, 14/11/2012 - 10:47am.

The solution to all this is to ban private ownership of motor vehicles. All motor vehicles are hired but kept at the premises or home of the person who hired them. Every six months, the vehicle is returned to the hire depot and a fully serviced and warranted replacement vehicle is picked up for the next six months.
Similarly, all drivers should have an advanced driver's licence, which has to be renewed every three years with full testing of advanced driver capabilities and ability to keep wandering hands from cellphones whilst driving.
This will put paid to the scourge of wayward boy racers, aged and inept drivers, parents breaking all the road rules in getting their kids to school and back, courier, logging, milk truck and bus drivers that are immune to speed restrictions, and train wreck vehicles that make our roads so unsafe.
In answer to one question raised here - yes, cars with no WOF are invariably driven by irresponsible and accident-prone drivers. All this can also be applied to cyclists and skateboarders.

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WOF Inspections.

Submitted by Fungus Pudding on Sat, 27/10/2012 - 2:26pm.

You can rest assured that in the minute number of case where a fault has contributed to an accident, the fault will be with the tyre or tyres in the vast majority of cases. Tyres can meet the minimum standard at time of inspection but fail the very next day, or within a short distance. They are the drivers' responsibility to check, and any tyre shop will inspect them free of charge for anyone who is unsure of the requirements. Mechanical parts are most unlikely to fail with 25,000kms of an inspection.

The sensible thing would be to require a WOF every 25,000kms or two yearly, whichever comes first. This along with spot road checks for tyres and lights would increase vehicle safety much more than the current six-monthly check, which dates back to before 1940 and didn't even include tyre treads until around the seventies. With modern vehicles it is definitely the tyres that need frequent checking, and the WOF at three, six or twelve month intervals does not provide for that.

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