A review of recent literature on general motor vehicle inspection is presented. Accidents caused by technical defects of motor vehicles, the influence of the age of the car on accidents, and the countermeasures to prevent this kind of accident are considered. A general periodical motor vehicle inspection is one of the possible countermeasures. The effects of this countermeasure, on accidents as well as maintenance, are studied and the execution of the countermeasure is discussed, particularly as regards the age of the car at the first inspection and the time between the inspections. Main conclusions are; (1) defects on motor vehicles account for 2-6% of the total number of accidents (2) of this group half consists of braking defects and a quarter of tyre defects (3) older motor vehicles are more involved in accidents than newer ones (4) there is no statistical relationship between general periodic motor vehicle inspection and fatal accident rate and (5) general periodic motor vehicle inspections will have a small but positive effect on the maintenance of the car.
Samenvatting