Proposed Vehicle Safety Package
Eleven proposals for improving vehicle safety have been released for public feedback. The proposals are aimed at improving the quality of vehicles entering NZ for the first time, and improving the safety of the vehicle fleet already on our roads. Specifics include:
- all passenger cars entering NZ will have to meet frontal-impact standards (currently, cars manufactured before 1 March 1999 don't have to meet such standards);
- tightening up border inspections for imported used vehicles;
- banning water-damaged vehicles from use on NZ roads;
- higher standards for brake parts and tyres when vehicles enter NZ;
- all damaged or deployed airbags be replaced;
- worn-out seatbelts are to be replaced with webbing-clamp seatbelts;
- tightening requirements for supplying and using replacement parts for repairing vehicles (this proposal concentrates on components that are critical to the performance of a vehicle's safety systems);
- Warrant of Fitness inspections to be yearly until vehicles are 5 years old (currently, it is 6 years old), and 6-monthly thereafter (this is unchanged);
- Frequency of Certificate of Fitness inspections to vary depending on the operator's safety performance (the idea here is to develop an "operator safety rating system" which would rate commercial vehicle operators based on their performance, including how safely their vehicles are maintained; and inspect them accordingly); and
- testing stations would be able to immediately cancel current Certificates of Fitness if serious defects are found on commercial vehicles (currently there can be a "grace period" to allow defects to be fixed).
Submissions close 28 September. The proposals can be downloaded from www.ltsa.govt.nz, or ordered by ringing 0800 699 000 |
Contact for Enquiries
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 00 83 33
Fax: +64 4 894 0720
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