Dangerous failures on the rise
More than one million cars registered to drive on UK roads have failed MOT tests this year because of defects considered so dangerous under new, more stringent MOT rules, that they pose an ‘immediate risk to road safety and/or serious impact on the environment’.
This worrying finding was revealed on analysis of DVSA data on MOT tests obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by car buying comparison website Motorway.co.uk in November 2018.
The data reveals that since 20th May 2018 when new MOT rules came into force, 1,131,376 cars have failed their MOTs because of dangerous defects. In October, almost nine per cent of cars that had an MOT failed because of a dangerous defect. On average since May, almost a third (32%) of cars that failed, were classified dangerous failures.
Under new MOT rules, defects are categorised as either: dangerous, major or minor, and a vehicle will fail if it has a dangerous or major fault. With the old MOT your vehicle either passed, passed with advisory faults or failed.
According to the DVSA website, a dangerous defect ‘has a direct and immediate risk to road safety or has a serious impact on the environment, and the vehicle cannot be driven again until the defect has been repaired.’
Examples of ‘dangerous defects’ include: Leaking hydraulic fluid; brake problems; and dangerous wheels.
A vehicle will no longer road legal if it fails due to a dangerous fault. If a car fails because of a major defect, the repair needs to be made as soon as possible. However, the car may be driven if it is still roadworthy and the MOT is valid.
Alex Buttle, director, said, ‘Looking at this data from the DVSA, we were really surprised by the high number of cars registered to drive on UK roads that are considered ‘dangerous’. And these are just the vehicles that have been tested since the new rules came into play in May 2018.
‘New car sales are currently falling at a dramatic rate, but the number of licensed cars on the road is remaining comparatively stable at around 38 million. This suggests owners are hanging onto cars for longer – and because of that, the UK’s used car stock will get older year on year unless that trend is reversed. That means more dangerous cars, requiring frequent safety checks.
‘We could be heading towards becoming a ‘country of clunkers’. Only an uptick in sales of new cars will cause a higher percentage of older cars to start exiting our roads. Until then, we will likely see more and more older and dangerous vehicles clogging up our highways, cars which either need to be fixed by a mechanic urgently or headed for the scrap heap.’
