VI aims to use roadside brake testers
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• The Vehicle Inspectorate is to run mobile brake testing equipment trials at roadside checks from next year. Under the present system, 19% of brake systems are found to be faulty at the roadside, compared with 32% at testing stations where more advanced equipment is used.
The VI is confident that evidence from these tests would be permissible in court. It plans to involve trade associations in tests on mobile equipment.
The mobile brake testers are likely to be the same as those used successfully in Austria. Australia and Finland.
The move is part of a push for greater efficiency within the VI as roadside computers finally go into action. VI staff will now be issuing prohibition notices at roadside checks using the computers, replacing the pink handwritten forms.
This is the latest stage in the hugely delayed computerisation of the VI's systems that by now should have seen traffic examiners accessing detailed information on an operator, including annual test records.