Image courtesy of Traffic Law Costa Rica
Getting your car ready for the annual Riteve inspection means checking the brakes, lights, seat belts, muffler, tires, etc. that everything works, with the intent to keep your vehicle running safely.
For some, however, the corrections are temporary only to pass the inspection. Renting tires, modifying the vehicle’s emission, adjusting the brakes and other mechanic’s tricks are a few some use to pass inspection and then.
This practice has been known to Transport officials who have been helpless. Until now. The vice-minister of Transport, Silvia Bolaños, says people have to understand that the vehicular inspection is as matter of road safety.
This past week the Policia de Tránsito (traffic police) in conjunction with Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) officials have been surprising drivers with random roadside spotchecks. The Tránsitos (traffic officials) now have the ability to correct problems items like slick tires or modified mufflers and head and tail lights, armed with tools to prove faults that make a vehicle unsafe and would have never passed a vehicle inspection.
Moreover, there exists a large number of vehicles that circulate without the Riteve. The spotchecks allows the finding and/of confiscation of unsafe vehicles.
Items like slick tires, faulty brakes and non-working head and tail lights are now targeted by Tránsitos at the roadside spotchecks.
The objective of the Cosevi and the Policia de Tránsito is to make the public aware of the serious problem of not maintaining one’s vehicle or not submitting to a vehicular inspection.
