The Texas Legislature has voted to end the requirement for mandatory safety inspections when drivers renew their registrations. House Bill 3297 will still require drivers to pay the registration fee each year. Federal and state emissions inspections that are conducted in areas of high pollution will still be done annually. 

The argument Texas legislators are making for getting rid of safety inspections is that it inconveniences drivers and does not actually provide safety.

State Representative Cody Harris (R-Palestine) authored the bill. He said in a statement to ABC13 that says, “These inspections are a waste of time for Texas citizens and a money-making Ponzi scheme used by some shady dealerships to upsell consumers with unnecessary repairs,” said Harris. “Texans are responsible, fiercely independent, and I trust them to keep their cars and trucks safe while on the road.”

The people who inspect the vehicles say they are necessary. There are unaware drivers who do not know if something in their car is going bad. They argue vehicle inspections are not just for the driver of the car, but all the drivers they are around on the road. 

NBC 5 stated in an article that, “Nationally, studies of state inspection programs have shown mixed results on safety. But in Texas, there are bigger questions about whether it’s even possible to evaluate the program’s effectiveness because, as a monthslong NBC 5 investigation has shown, the program is riddled with fraud,” said NBC 5. “Our reporting exposed widespread cheating by inspection shops, falsely passing cars in exchange for cash, according to law enforcement authorities.”

Additionally, NBC 5 Investigates stated that investigators believe millions of cars on Texas roads have fake inspections. 

There is debate on whether safety inspections actually keep drivers safe and conflicting reports either show that there is some connection, or there isn’t a way to see if there is a connection. The American Society of Civil Engineers believes that there is a connection. States with annual safety inspections have 5.5% fewer fatalities than states that do not. 

A minority of states across the US still have annual safety inspections.

This law does not apply to commercial vehicles and commercial vehicles will not be required to pay a registration fee. 

If Abbott signs this into law, then the end of Texas’s safety inspections would take place in 2025.

The Texas Senate has also voted to end paper license plates due to widespread counterfeiting used for criminal purposes. Texas law enforcement has linked them to criminal use because its easier to forge them.

According to KXAN, “Tag fraud has been connected to crimes ranging from not paying tolls to human smuggling at the border, robbery, rape and murder, according to law enforcement.”