State to Crack Down on Auto Smog Inspections
Plans for a new crackdown on fraud and negligence by automobile smog inspection stations have been announced by the state Bureau of Automotive Repair.
Using random roadside checks, the bureau found that 23% of emission control systems of cars had been tampered with to make them ineffective. However, only 5% of the cars brought to smog check stations were discovered to have similar problems.
Martin Dyer, chief of the Bureau of Automotive Repair, said Wednesday that some motorists have been repairing their cars before taking them in for inspection, but others have not and still have managed to get certified.
The crackdown on smog inspection stations is a result of a Senate bill that took effect Jan. 1, which required that negligent mechanics attend emission training programs, tightened inspection station licensing requirements and authorized the bureau to impose stiff fines for inspector negligence and illegal sale of smog certificates.
Another aspect of the bureau’s crackdown will be an increased number of undercover visits to smog inspection stations to find those that are not doing their job properly. To achieve this increase, the bureau has hired an additional 45 undercover workers who will conduct four times as many undercover visits per month to smog stations.
Additional concern was raised during audits by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Inspection Maintenance Review Committee, which, according to Dyer, found that “there were too many incomplete inspections.”
During a press conference on the crackdown, Dyer held up an air pump as an example of inspector negligence. The air pump had been removed by the bureau from one of its undercover cars before sending the vehicle on Jan. 13 for inspection in San Francisco. The car was given a passing certificate, despite the fact that the pump was a fairly large piece of smog control equipment and the mechanic should have noticed that it was missing.
Under the new law, inspectors can be fined $150 to $1,000 and the mechanics can be required to go through 8 to 70 hours of retraining. Illegal transfer or sale of smog certificates will result in fines of up to $1,500.
In the last 18 months, the bureau has issued only 1,500 citations for improper smog checks, a small number in comparison to the 6 million cars checked per year in California, Dyer said.
He said, however, that there have been some signs of improvement in the smog check program. In 1986, when the bureau would send an undercover car to a station it suspected of doing improper inspections, the car would come back with an unearned passing certificate 60% of the time.
