It’s almost as if “pro-life” Republicans use that label as cover for pro-death policies. The latest case in point is the state of Texas repealing requirements for safety inspections for noncommercial vehicles, as of Jan. 1. The fee remains part of a vehicle’s registration cost, though.
Texas roads have not become so safe that there’s no need for laws to make them less perilous. In reality, the state’s roads are “notoriously dangerous,” The Texas Tribune reports. “At least one person dies on a Texas road each day. According to the most recent state data, 4,283 people were killed in auto crashes in Texas during 2023. Based on the reported crashes in 2023, one person was killed on a Texas roadway about every two hours.”
It’s quite likely that required safety inspections helped keep the roads from becoming even more deadly dangerous:
A study mandated by the Texas Legislature in 2017 shows that cars with defects, such as bald tires or bad brakes, were three years older than the average registered vehicle, which is nine years old.
Almost a quarter of the people surveyed in the study were asked by a mechanic to fix slick or defective tires during an inspection, potentially preventing more accidents. Another report found that defective cars in Texas were more than three times as likely to be involved in a crash that resulted in a fatality.
So, why the heck did the legislature vote to repeal required safety inspections? “Supporters of the bill called the safety inspections time consuming and inconvenient,” as per The Tribune. It names names:
Republican Rep. Cody Harris of Palestine and Sens. Mayes Middleton of Galveston and Bob Hall of Edgewood sponsored the bill to do away with annual vehicle inspections.
“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,” Harris said in a statement to ABC 13 in Houston. “Texans are responsible, fiercely independent, and I trust them to keep their cars and trucks safe while on the road.”
Other groups and businesses — such as former Texas Sen. Don Huffines’ Liberty Foundation, Continental Automotive Group, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Texas Conservative Coalition and Tesla — were all witnesses in favor of the bill. Huffines, whose family owns a car dealership empire in North Texas, has been a vocal supporter of the bill.
Each of those four Republicans boasts about being pro-life. So, they are just fine with legislating far more serious time and financial burdens on pregnant women, not to mention health risks to the mother. Now, they are just fine with making Texas roads more dangerous.
Got it.
