Dare To Follow Jersey

Here’s one place where New York should follow New Jersey’s lead: End mandatory car-safety inspections, because they’re just not worth the time and trouble.

The latest study to show this comes from Alex Hoagland of Boston University and Trevor Woolley of Brigham Young. They compared fatalities caused by car problems in Jersey and DC (which have ditched their inspection requirements) to those in states that still order them.

Ending the mandate, they found, brought “no significant increases in . . . traffic fatalities per capita, traffic fatalities due specifically to car failure per capita, or the frequency of accidents due to car failure.”

Cars have gotten safer. Notably, newer vehicles alert you to failures in every system. And vehicle breakdowns are the cause of extremely few accidents.

The study echoes similar findings, such as one in the Southern Economic Journal that found “no evidence” that inspections “significantly reduce fatality or injury rates.”

So why do states like New York continue to force motorists to jump through this hoop? Well, service stations that do the inspections lobby to keep the mandate.

That sounds like Empire State lawmakers: putting a special interest above the needs of everyone else.

It’s enough to drive you nuts.