by Ted Rueter
Durham Herald Sun
February 24, 2013
The North Carolina General Assembly is considering HB 59, which would eliminate annual safety inspections. Rep. Paul Luebke of Durham calls the bill “a disaster.” There will be a legislative hearing on the bill this Tuesday at noon.
Safety and emissions inspections should be continued, especially for motor vehicle emission control and exhaust systems. Even new vehicles can have improperly functioning systems, due to deliberate tampering by their owners.
This is especially true for motorcycles. Current state law exempts motorcycles from the emissions inspection. Their exhaust systems are only inspected during the annual safety inspection which HB 59 proposes to eliminate. This kind of tampering is prevalent in the motorcycle community. Without an annual exhaust system inspection, motorcyclists would be even more free to tamper with their vehicle’s exhaust system, and the problem of excessive would become even worse.
In many cases, the owners of brand-new motorcycles replace their legal and quiet factory-installed exhaust systems with illegal and loud after-market, competition-class exhaust systems. Some motorcycle dealerships even perform this illegal, illicit tampering. It is vital that this illegal tempering be inspected for and detected by a comprehensive examination at the annual state inspection.
Ted Rueter
Noise Free America