Taking your car in every year for its inspection sticker is a familiar ordeal to all Maine drivers, and a proposal introduced earlier this year sought to make this a less frequent occurrence.
This bill, LD 1010, has now been unanimously rejected by lawmakers, however, following a strong Ought Not to Pass recommendation by the state’s Transportation Committee.
Under this proposal, Mainers would only need to get their vehicles inspected every other year, as opposed to the annual requirement currently in place.
Signed by all but one Committee member, the Ought Not to Pass report was accepted by the House Monday morning without taking a roll call vote.
[RELATED: Maine Drivers May Only Need to Update Inspection Stickers Every Other Year Under New Proposal]
Supporters of these annual inspections argue that they help to keep poorly maintained and unsafe vehicles off the road, but some evidence suggests that they may not actually have a substantial impact after all.
A 2021 report published by the Maine Policy Institute found that between 2015 and 2019, only three percent of car accidents involved mechanical difficulties.
Under state law, it is already a Class E crime to operate a “defective vehicle,” meaning that inspection stickers are not the only mechanism for deterring drivers from taking unsafe cars on the road.
“Rather than relying on a blanket, state-enforced mandate, we should trust that drivers are incentivized to maintain their vehicles, especially given the high cost of neglect,” said the Maine Policy Institute in testimony before the Transportation Committee this year. “With advancements in automotive technology, vehicles are more reliable and safer than ever.”
Despite this, Maine police have previously pushed back against efforts to repeal the law, arguing that the inspections provide a safety net allowing for problems to be identified and corrected in a timely manner.
The Maine Municipal Association (MMA) testified in opposition to this bill, raising concerns that biannual inspections would make Maine’s roads more dangerous.
“Vehicle inspections are crucial to road safety as we rely on other vehicles on the road to have adequate stopping power for sudden road hazards, which include meandering children and distracted pedestrians,” said the MMA. “Road conditions, tires, speed, and adequate brakes are crucial to reducing accidents and saving lives. These are not items that have a long lifespan as they are used daily.”
Some critics, on the other hand, have said that the system opens the door for unscrupulous mechanics to charge drivers for unnecessary repairs.
The rejection of LD 1010 will now be sent to the Senate for concurrence, where it is expected that lawmakers in that chamber will follow suit. A separate bill that would also have done away annual inspections got nixed in committee and didn’t make it to the floor.
Disclosure: The Maine Wire is a project of the Maine Policy Institute.
