Evening star., 1942-10-05
Plan 10 Abolish
CarInspections
Turned Down
City Heods Disopprove
keneipp's ldeu After
Attoek by von Duzer

On. the basis of statistics SUBJ
M1itted by Trafic Director William
A. Van Duxer, the Commissioners
today rejected q recent proposal BY
0eofEe 3. Keneipp Of the Keystone
Automobile Club, that the annual
mechanical inspection of motor
vehicles he suspended for the dura-
tion In the interest Of saving time,
money. rubber and gas.
Mr.. Van Duzer. challenging numer-
GUS arguments offered by Mr..
Keneipp. said: "It Is more important
Aewa both from safety standpoint
and from the standpoint of wear on
tires ,and waste Of gasoline and oil,
70 have Inspections periodically than
It waA before the present emer-
gency.@
The position Of the traffic director
was supported unanimously by the
Engineer Department TRAFFIC Com
mittee, which includes Mr.. Van
Duzer, Highway Director H. c.
WhitehLrst and the Assistant En-
gineer Commissioner, Col. Joseph D.
Arthur, jr.
Objection to Idea Given.
Mr.. Keneipp had argued that the
necessary inspection of tires might
be assigned to some other agency
or that it might be delegated to
certain privately operated service
stations. Mr.. Van Duzer replied
that this subject had been con-
sidered by the Commissioners and
that it was felt that since "the
tire dealer probably would have a
selfish interest" it would be better to
have District-owned stations pass on
eligibility Of the applicant for re-
Gaping or new tires.
Mr.. Keneipp had argued that "in
some instances" the A-card driver
might consume as much as 50 per
cent Of weeks supply Of gasoline
in getting to and from inspection
stations. To this Mr.. Van Duzer
responded that a checkup showed
that on the average inspection trips
would run a little over miles,
which on the OPA's 15-miles-per-
gallon basis would mean using
three-fifths of one gallon instead
Of two gallons.
Rejection Figures Cited.
Whereas Mr.. Keneipp argued that
the motorist is taking better care of
his car than formerly, Ml Van
DuSer submitted figures to show
that between April and October l.,
reflections at the stations were
higher than for the sa11e period Of
1e41..
The tralYic direeteeseiss submitt1H
figures to show tAss 66dsp pH1BOry me-
chanical inspection of cars here had
resulted in protection to the public.
He said that from 1888 to 1910, the
percentage Of defective District cars
involved In accidents decreased from
IL per cent to LOS per cent. In 1888,
70 per cent Of the detective cars in
volved in accidents here were cars
of District residents, but in 1910 this
figure fell to 66 per cent while "for-
eign" cars increased from ~ per cent
of all cars involved In 1898 and "a
per cent in 1910.
The traffic director emphasized
that nearly 26 per cent Of all pas
senger cars inspected in 1941 and
nearly 4s per cent Of the trucks,
showed excessive tire wear. He con-
cluded: Probably the most impor-
tant finding of the inspection sta
ton was the condemnation Of 719
vehicles which were found unsafe
and unfit for operation on the
streets. and the situation was so bad
that all these vehicles were towed
from the inspection station. A good
many Of them were junked, although
previous to inspection, they had
been in operation on the streets. :"