Statistics concerning technical defects in vehicles investigated by DEKRA engineers in the Federal Republic of Germany have been processed for the first time and comparatively evaluated. The data clearly show that passenger vehicles - in spite of the current periodic monitoring - display technical defects more frequently with increasing age and are therefore also more frequently involved in accidents as a result of such defects. This is also true of buses, goods vehicles and semitrailer tractors, although not with such a marked dependence on age as in the case of passenger vehicles. In the case of the occurrence of defects in trailers and semitrailers, no marked dependence on age can be discerned. Defects in vehicles (which have been categorized as being the cause of an accident) are to be found in all vehicle types predominantly on the brakes and, particularly with passenger vehicles, on the tyres. The owners or drivers of the vehicles bear the main responsibility for these defects.
Samenvatting