JACKSON - In nine years on the roads of Mississippi, Highway Patrol Lt. Tyrone Lockwood has seen motor vehicles in all kinds of mechanical shape.
"Some of those vehicles would come through road blocks and we'd pull them out, knowing that vehicle couldn't pass any inspection to be having a sticker," said Lockwood, a 20-year veteran who now is director of the patrol's implied consent and motor vehicle inspection office.
It is such instances that have prompted some lawmakers to say the annual vehicle inspection, a minor nuisance for most Mississippi drivers, should go the way of the buggy whip.
Its repeal is unlikely, however.
While many state legislators say the program is as an inadequate way to catch serious mechanical problems or to get unsafe cars and trucks off the roads, the $5 fee - split between the state and garages doing the inspections - brings Mississippi almost $4 million a year.
A cash-strapped Legislature cannot afford to lose that money.
Proposals to repeal the annual inspections have come up before.
In the past, legislators have heard complaints that garage and service stations owners lose money. The cost of checking the lights, horn and other items that must be examined is more than the $3 the station owner gets from the $5 fee, many say. The state gets the remaining $2.
Rufus Means, proprietor of Means Shell in Brandon, said he stopped doing inspections about a year ago. He said it was taking time away from his garage business and he wasn't being paid enough to keep doing them.
"It didn't pay anything. For $5, I couldn't justify hiring somebody just to write inspection stickers," Means said. "I was selling about 2,000 a month."
Means said the law is useless unless lawmakers want to strengthen it.
"You can't inspect a car like it's supposed to be according to the book for what you get out of it," he said.
Another option legislators could consider would be raising the fee enough so garages and service station owners would not lose money. Lawmakers considering such a proposal dropped it since this is an election year and any fee is viewed as a tax, they say.
That's all the more reason to repeal the law, say Rep. Tom Cameron, I-Greenville, and Sen. Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, who have authored bills to do so.
"I think it is a process that for the most part is not being done," Nunnelee said. "Anybody in the state can go pay $5 and get a sticker put on their car and it's not inspected. The garages that are doing that procedure can't afford to spend the time necessary to do all the things on the check list and only get paid $3 to do it."
Cameron said he sees vehicles in the Delta that have stickers that couldn't quality as safe under stringent testing.
"It's just an inconvenience for everyone to have to go in and get an inspection. The people only make $3 for inspecting a vehicle so you can imagine how much time and effort they put into really inspecting it," Cameron said.
He said vehicle owners know how to get around the inspection.
"Common sense tells you somebody can get their car patched up, go in get a sticker on it but then they don't maintain it. And there are people out there who will inspect them for their friends even if they don't qualify," Cameron said.
Lockwood said the Department of Public Safety has issued permits to about 1,700 inspection stations in Mississippi. About 1.9 million vehicles were inspected last year. A permit costs $10 a year.
Lockwood said car dealers are required by law to inspect new and used vehicles sold from their lots. Otherwise, there is a degree of trust that the others are following DPS rules and regulations.
"From time to time, there may be some that are not doing what they are supposed to do with inspections. Sooner or later, we get a complaint, issue a warning and then suspend their permit if another complaint comes in," Lockwood said.
DPS regulations require the stations to inspect windshields, wipers, headlights, signal lights, brake lights, horn and the general condition of the car. There are no statistics on how many vehicles fail inspections.
"Some of them will check brake fluid and check the brakes," Lockwood said.
A motorist caught with no inspection sticker or an expired one can be fined up to $50 and six months in jail.
Cameron said another drawback to the law is that only the Highway Patrol can enforce the law. Local police and sheriffs' departments have no authority to check the stickers.
Nunnelee said most Mississippi motorists are responsible enough to keep their cars up.
"I don't think this system is going to make anybody repair and maintain their car who would not otherwise do so," he said.
"If a person is not going to keep their car in safe running order, they can find a place on almost any street corner in this state, pay $5 and get sticker without having the car inspected."
A number of other states have ended vehicle inspections - neighboring Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas are among them. Federal officials say Mississippi is among only 19 states that still requires some form of regular safety inspection.
Federal funding once was available to support the inspection programs, but as the funding dwindled some states chose not to continue their programs, said Lori Cohen with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
The U.S. General Accounting Office reported last year that states with safety inspection requirements have one-sixth fewer crashes per capita than states without similar programs.
The bills are Senate Bill 2063 and House Bill 190.
Copyright 2002, Associated Press. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
