Stricter Vehicular Inspection
Regulations Go Into Effect in July
Come July passing the annual
vehicular inspection, Riteve, will get even tougher as new rules and
regulations go into effect.
Items like windshield wipers, wheels, tires, lights, horns and rear
seatbelts and other such items will be upgrade to "grave" or serious
and may cause the vehicle fail the inspection it they are not in
perfect working order.
As it stands now, many of the items like less than perfect
windshield wipers or the horn not blowing every time are "leve" or
light. Leves, even though they show up on the report, are not cause
for the vehicle to fail the inspection.
Some 40 items in the new manual are being upgraded to grave from
leve. The new regulations were published in the La Gaceta on
December 19, 2008, however, don't take effect until July of this
year.
Rosaura Montero, viceministra de Transportes, explained that the
changes are mainly to guarantee more security for vehicles
circulating on the roads. The vice-minister said that the entire
manual has been revised, as new "faltas graves" were added, while
others upgraded.
Items like rearview mirrors will now become important, was well that
all side view mirrors, bumpers cannot be altered as such to change
the profile of the vehicle, the inspectors will fail a vehicle that
has stickers of any kind or any item above the windshield wiper line
that can obstruct the drivers front visibility.
A seatbelt is required for every passenger. If a vehicle has a
registered capacity of 8 passengers, such as a van or limousine, it
must have 8 functioning seatbelts. The horn must be working and only
have one tone, no more of the multi tone horns.
Headlights, including high beams have to be working properly. In
many cases the inspection checks the functioning of the headlights,
but not its alignment and that the high beams are actually working
as high beams.
Vehicles with gas conversions must have the type of fuel used on the
registration. For example, a vehicle that was converted from
gasoline to LPG gas, must have its registration changed as well or
it will fail the Riteve inspection for not using the correct fuel.
Other changes include buses must have all the seats in good
condition and school buses must have a seatbelt for every student.
To avoid owners of vehicles evading the new regulations, for another
year at least, the Riteve inspection stations will only inspect
vehicles with a plate ending 6 or 7 in June. All other vehicles have
to wait for July when the new regulations will be in force. |
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