Voluntary Tests for Old Vehicles
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ir ROM September 12, any owner of a vehicle more than 10 years old may voluntarily arrange with any of 12,000 authorized garages for a test to ascertain whether the vehicle complies with the statutory requirements as to brakes, lighting and steering.
If the vehicle does comply, a test certificate (price 15s.) can be obtained. This certificate will later be made compulsory for vehicles registered for more than 10 years. Compulsory testing is not to be introduced immediately, because a reasonable interval is to be allowed for owners to obtain their certificates.
The Minister of Transport will shortly make an order specifying when it will be unlawful for vehicles more than 10 years old to be on the road without certification. It is intended that a valid annual test certificate will be required before such a vehicle can be relicensed.
Issued on Monday, the Motor Vehicles (Tests) Regulations, 1960 (Stationery Office, Is. 6d.) apply to motor-bicycles, three-wheelers, goads vehicles under 30 cwt. unladen weight, private ears, taxis, public service vehicles with fewer than eight passenger seats, buses and coaches licensed as "private," and dualpurpose vehicles up to 2 tons unladen weight.
So far as the braking system is concerned, the tester will examine rods, cables and hydraulic lines and handbrake pawls and ratchets, and look for oil and air leakages. Braking efficiency will be tested on a static machine in the 82 garage, the minimum acceptable efficiencies being 50 per cent, for a fourwheeled system and 25 per cent, for the hand brake.
The examination of the steering gear will be equally thorough, covering track rods, steering arms and drag-link joints, king pins, wheel bearings and the steering box. •
All obligatory lights and reflectors will be checked, and head lamps must not cause dazzle. The requirements are that the beam should be deflected so as not to dazzle a person on the same horizontal plane as the vehicle at a greater distance than 25 ft. and with an eye level not less than 3 ft, 6 in. from the ground.
The owner may select any testing station. Where a test certificate is refused and the vehicle is left with the examiner for repair, a test certificate will be issued on completion on payment of Is. in addition to the 14s. charged for the notification of refusal following the initial test. If the vehicle is taken for repair to another garage, the charge for a re-test will be 8s. if undertaken at the station originally issuing the refusal.
Arrangements are made for appeals to the Minister against refusal of certificates. If an appeal is successful, the whole or part of the fee of £1 5s. is returnable.
MORE ROAD CASUALTIES
RE were 504 deaths on the roads of Great Britain during May this year, 12 more than in the same month last year.