AUSTIN, Texas (PRESS RELEASE) – Today in Austin, Senator Don Huffines (R-Dallas) filed Senate Bill 1588, a bi-partisan bill that will repeal the annual requirement that all passenger vehicles receive a state-certified inspection. A significant and diverse body of scientific evidence indicate that safety inspections do nothing to increase road safety.

Senator Huffines stated, “With significant technological advances in vehicle design and technology, this 66-year-old program is a relic of the past. State government is wasting Texans’ time & money on the annual chore of passenger inspections when 34 other states, including populous states like California, don’t require it of their drivers. Once you realize that these inspections aren’t about safety, it’s clear that they’re simply a tax on Texans’ time and money.”

Passenger vehicle safety inspections in Texas started in 1951. In 1976, the federal government abandoned the nationwide requirement. Today, only 16 states still impose this burdensome and needless mandate on drivers, leaving Texans in an unfortunate minority. One such example is the State of Nebraska, which repealed its safety inspection program only to find that defect-related crashes decreased by 16 percent after they ended their state inspection mandate.

Under Senator Huffines’ proposal, drivers would save $7.00 per vehicle. Across the state, this tax cut would amount to approximately $150 million, alongside the return of approximately 9 million hours that are currently lost to obtaining a safety inspection. SB 1588 would redirect the resources formerly associated with the passenger vehicle safety inspection program into a new initiative at the Texas Department of Public Safety that focuses on hiring and training troopers to detect vehicles that are blatantly operated unsafely.

Senator Huffines concluded, “This is perhaps the most onerous and needless mandate that state government imposes on its citizens. With nearly 20 million inspections done annually, most Texans will feel immediate relief with the elimination of this program. It’s a joyous day in the Capitol when we have the opportunity to help millions of hard-working Texans by getting a worthless mandate off of their backs.”

This article is a press release from the officer of Texas Senator Don Huffines.