Motorcycles to face technical checks under new EU proposals

Car owners are facing annual NCT or MOT checks on cars over five years old while technical checks for scooters and motorbikes will be introduced for the first time under EU proposals.

Sat, 14 Jul, 2012 - 01:00

Ann Cahill

Vehicles with exceptionally high mileage will have to be checked more often too as research shows the number of accidents increases significantly for these and for vehicles once they reach five years old.

Up to now, NCTs, or MOTs in Britain and Europe, have been compulsory on cars that have been on the road for four years and are repeated every second year. Motorcycles have been exempt.

Technical faults are to blame for 6% of all car accidents and 2,000 road deaths a year in the EU, and thousands of injuries.

Defective motorbikes are linked to 8% of accidents and kill a disproportionate number of young men.

Studies in Britain and Germany show that despite the current MOT regime, up to one in 10 cars on the road at any one time have a problem that would cause them to fail the test.

At the same time, the current MOT legislation setting the standards for checks is more than 40 years old and does not cover some of the newer technology built into vehicles.

The proposals announced in Brussels include checks on ABS breaking systems and Electronic Stability Control.

Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said the new tighter regulations should save more than 1,200 lives a year and avoid more than 36,000 accidents caused by technical problems.

“If you are driving a car which is not fit to be on the road, you are a danger to yourself and to everyone else in your car — your family, your friends, your business colleagues.

“What’s more, you are a danger to all the other road users around you. It’s not complicated — we don’t want these potentially lethal cars on our roads,” said Commissioner Kallas.

Currently taxis, ambulances and other high mileage vehicles are subjected to more frequent MOTs than other vehicles, but the commission’s proposals say all vehicles with high mileage must come under the same rule.