In 1920, the growing number of accidents frightened certain authorities who recommended that, in addition to the special education programs for drivers, a campaign should be organised in order to draw their attention to the importance of maintaining certain vital parts of their vehicles. The first campaign was organised, in 1927, in the State of Massachusetts. Throughout this campaign, it was possible to have vehicles inspected in certain garages chosen by the government. This example was followed by other states, but only a small proportion of vehicles went to this sort of inspection. For this reason a State law came out in 1929 in Massachusetts making half-yearly inspection of vehicles compulsory. The inspection took place in private garages recognised by the government. There were however many serious drawbacks to this system, for instance the difficulty of supervising those garages. That is why the State of Delaware had its own inspection stations built and provided with the most up-to-date equipment. This example was followed by other States. One of the factors with the greatest influence on accident potential is the mechanical condition of the vehicles. The percentage of faulty vehicles becomes progressively smaller through the action of compulsory periodical inspection, but the rate of accidents, fatal or otherwise, may be different from one State to the other. This is due to certain physical or educational factors with a possible influence on individual driver behaviour. In a very general way, technical inspection can be of three kinds: police control on the road, voluntary inspection during a safety campaign, and compulsory periodical inspection in governmental, private or urban stations. The author relates how technical inspection and inspection stations are organised in the District of Columbia and in the State of Virginia. In conclusion, the author describes the influence of accidents on social economics, loss of goods and lives, their effect on production, road accidents being one of the main causes of absence from work. Periodical technical inspection is to be considered as an indispensable step towards accident rate reduction, technical defects of the vehicle coming into account in 25% of the accidents. (A)
Abstract