FOR the average motor vehicle owner, keeping his car, bus or truck looking clean and new is a priority.

However, the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) has expressed concern that even the most diligent vehicle owners sometimes neglect to take the best care of the functional parts of their vehicles.

The NRSC said that while an unwashed car may cost the owner his dignity, an unfit vehicle can cost the owner his life, and the lives of others.

Elan Powell, senior superintendent in charge of the Police Traffic Division and executive member of the NRSC, told JIS News that improperly serviced or unfit vehicles put all road users at risk.

“If the vehicle is not roadworthy, you are not only endangering yourself, but you are endangering everybody else that uses the road,” Powell said. He added that it was the motorist’s responsibility to ensure that his vehicle is fit for the road.

Motor vehicle fitness is achieved through the regular servicing of a vehicle and its parts. Where motorists fall behind in this process, the Island Traffic Authority, through its motor vehicle testing depots, is able to bring them up to speed through its mandatory vehicle examination exercise.

According to Fidel McFarlane, motor vehicle certifying officer at the Swallowfield Examination Depot, fitness testing examines those features of the motor vehicle that are most essential to safe driving on the nation’s roads.

“In testing motor vehicles, we ensure that the tyres are not worn beyond the breaker strip, that the brakes work efficiently, that the steering is in good condition, that the exhaust system is not smoking too loudly. Those are some of the major things we look for,” McFarlane said.

He added that a vehicle cannot be lawfully declared fit without meeting these and other standards.

For a vehicle to be truly safe for the road, however, owners should try to go above the mere legal requirements, McFarlane added.

For instance, he said, careful attention should be given to tyres, which often become a safety hazard long before the law deems them unfit.

“Most motorists think that a smooth tyre is okay. It is not illegal to have a smooth tyre in Jamaica, but a smooth tyre is very dangerous because it has no traction,” said McFarlane. “So you step on the brakes and it [the tyre] can slide”.

Meanwhile, executive director of the National Road Safety Council Paula Fletcher said the issue of tyre safety has become a priority for the council.

Fletcher said that once a tyre’s grooves are worn down, the tyre becomes prone to slippage and hence becomes a road safety hazard. She added that while examiners at the depots recognise the dangers of a smooth tyre, they are forced to examine vehicles along the specific lines of the law.

“The fitness testing centres can’t have a different standard from what is in the law. Unfortunately, they are working with a low standard,” she said.

Fletcher said, however, that through the amendment of the Road Traffic Act, steps were being taken to correct this matter.