Do people still think WOFs are "for our safety"?

[Scuba_Steve]

Full Stuff "reporting" can be found here http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3689...a-modified-car

but a summary of points

* John Langeveld later admitted he had ordered the car to be taken off the hoist (April 9 last year), but said he believed the car was roadworthy because it had a warrant of fitness.
-- Isn't this why we are told we pay for WOFs?

* Serious crash investigator Senior Constable Alistair Crosland said the car had several modifications, which affected its handling, including suspension set so low the car rested on its rubber bump stops.
* NZ Transport Agencyvehicle inspector Warrick Andrews said the car also had loose and worn steering joints, insecure brake hose and low-profile tyres, which contacted the body of the car.
-- And yet it passed at least one Probably 2 WOF inspections

* 45 minutes before the fatal crash The car was checked for "obvious defects" and the warrant of fitness was also checked but found to be current.
-- Yet a garage had called the car unsafe a year before hand, still it passes WOF

Again & again the WOF system proves itself to be unreliable & inaccurate. It offers NO protection, NO assurance & No safety guarantee. It does very little other than take our money.

WOFs should be a complete inspection & only done a maximum of every 2yrs after the first 10 & every 5yrs before.

[imdying]

You only hear about the failures. It's a fact that the system is still catching all sorts of horrible shite every day. I've seen that shite, and you'd feel a lot better if you knew just how many cars without brakes are failed every year. We should continue to pay for WOFs because too many of the population refuse to care for their vehicles correctly off their own initiative.

[scott411]

its pretty simple, the father ordered the car to be taken away form the garage because he thought the garage might be "rail roading him" but did not take it to anyone else straight away or act on the mechaincs advice,

one of the other boys fathers were complaning that the police were not heavy handed enough in providing a full search of the car when it was pulled up, but every civil rights group in teh country would be up in arms if police started full searching every car they pulled over at night,

i feel for the families and freinds of these boys, but in the end they had warnings, hid possible defects and the fact they were drinking,

[glegge]

You only hear about the failures. It's a fact that the system is still catching all sorts of horrible shite every day. I've seen that shite, and you'd feel a lot better if you knew just how many cars without brakes are failed every year. We should continue to pay for WOFs because too many of the population refuse to care for their vehicles correctly off their own initiative.

and then drive without a WOF regardless - yeah ok a little devils advocate, but also quite true.

[firefighter]

Good post Scott. Your bang on there. The only people responsible for what happened, is the driver and the occupants.

It had a WOF. So what? If you have a WOF it's meeting required standards at that time of issue. Anything can be changed between inspections. Fuck I used to swap my Cragers over for the original wheels on my Kingswood so it would pass a WOF, and change them back when I got home......(heavy bloody thing is was too, it bent my scissor jack, god I loved that thing.)

[Katman]

Far too many people already think that having a current WOF means that their vehicle is automatically safe.

The WOF inspection is merely an indication that the vehicle was safe at the time of inspection.

It is the owners responsibility to ensure that the vehicle remains safe for the 6 or 12 month WOF period.

I shudder to think of the shit we'd have on our roads if the inspections were 24 months apart.

[Flip]

Full Stuff "reporting" can be found here http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3689...a-modified-car

but a summary of points

* John Langeveld later admitted he had ordered the car to be taken off the hoist (April 9 last year), but said he believed the car was roadworthy because it had a warrant of fitness.
-- Isn't this why we are told we pay for WOFs?

* Serious crash investigator Senior Constable Alistair Crosland said the car had several modifications, which affected its handling, including suspension set so low the car rested on its rubber bump stops.
* NZ Transport Agencyvehicle inspector Warrick Andrews said the car also had loose and worn steering joints, insecure brake hose and low-profile tyres, which contacted the body of the car.
-- And yet it passed at least one Probably 2 WOF inspections

* 45 minutes before the fatal crash The car was checked for "obvious defects" and the warrant of fitness was also checked but found to be current.
-- Yet a garage had called the car unsafe a year before hand, still it passes WOF

Again & again the WOF system proves itself to be unreliable & inaccurate. It offers NO protection, NO assurance & No safety guarantee. It does very little other than take our money.

WOFs should be a complete inspection & only done a maximum of every 2yrs after the first 10 & every 5yrs before.

What a stupid post.

Only a moron or a boy racer would ever think such a daft thing.

[red mermaid]

Plenty of rubbish out there now with and without WoF's/CoF's.

And the drivers of these vehicles are often ready to argue the point on how safe their vehicle is, how you are breaching their rights, you don't know what you are talking about, and they are going to make a complaint about your actions.

[bogan]

Plenty of rubbish out there now with and without WoF's/CoF's.

And the drivers of these vehicles are often ready to argue the point on how safe their vehicle is, how you are breaching their rights, you don't know what you are talking about, and they are going to make a complaint about your actions.

What sort of percentage of car do you reckon just go without wof and rego? I know of a few (mostly rural) and was breifly tailed by a cop when i was in my old celica, which didn't look too dodgy, but the two mofo's in the front did so maybe he was checking it for stoled rather than wof....

Anyhu, just wondering whether the number of unsafe but wof'd vehicles outweigh the unwof'd ones?

[red mermaid]

Couldn't really say on an accurate basis, and it can depend on where you check vehicles as well.

I know the number of unregistered cars is increasing and there is a lot of WoFed cars that are unsafe, but all on an anecdotal basis through experience.

[Tank]

From the state the car was it - it would not have passed a WOF. Father should have had enough brains.

[onearmedbandit]

Sometimes the parents have less of an idea than the children. Case in point, a few years ago a father bought his daughter a WRX STi, it was either a very late model or brand new, regardless she hated how 'uncool' the factory steering wheel with airbag was, and demanded a sportier steering be fitted. Daddy complied, and a short while later she was killed in a crash in that vehicle, which might had been avoidable if the factory steering wheel was still fitted.

[Scuba_Steve]

From the state the car was it - it would not have passed a WOF. Father should have had enough brains.

But thats my point It DID pass a WOF, maybee even 2. WOFs artificially give people "piece of mind" yet all they do is take our money & give us a sticker in return. The back of a WOF sheet even says they do NOT provide a structural check. your able to fail WOFs on optional accessories that to me is just insane, their optional. I have a Land Rover too which I have to remove (yes thats right, remove) the seat belts to get a WOF. WOFs have very little to do with safety & more to do with money.
Aussie doesn't have WOF's seems to be working fine for them, I'm saying we need FULL checks every couple years.

[red mermaid]

Or the other side of the coin is....they know there car is a heap of shit so take it to a dodgy WoF issuer so they have a sticker on the windscreen to argue the point when pulled over by police and told the car is unsafe.

[Katman]

WOFs have very little to do with safety & more to do with money.

What a stupid statement.

Maybe you should stop getting your WOFs from down the pub.