Modified cars put people at risk

Faulty lights cause most cars to fail a warrant at the OnRoad testing station but it is modified suspensions that concern checking staff the most.
"The suspension modifications we see are dangerous and the angles of the suspension components are sometimes quite severe and they certainly don't aid the safe handling of the vehicle," said Ted Anslow, manager of the Hewletts Rd station.
Mr Anslow said while some of the vehicles had modification certificates they were still unsafe.
"Some of them are that low that they're very close to the road, they take out most of the suspension travel."
Mr Anslow said tight suspension, coupled with low profile tyres, led to very little shock absorption on the road.
"It doesn't aid in the handling of the car so therefore it's going to be difficult to drive at speed," he said.
Mr Anslow said these modified ``boy and girl racer' cars seemed to come out of the woodwork following a blitz by police.
Some drivers obtained a warrant by swapping parts around but in order to be warranted the modified vehicles needed to be changed back to how they were originally designed, he said.
"They'll take it away and change it again and next weekend go get another ticket," Mr Anslow said.
Other reasons for warrant failures were faults with steering and suspension, tyres, and brakes.
"Lights would be the highest percentage because there's so many that we can fail," said Mr Anslow.
The number of cars failing due to rust had declined though cars could now fail for expelling excessive smoke, he added. Some of the vehicles which came through the testing station had warrants which expired two or three months earlier, although Mr Anslow said it was possible some of these vehicles had been off the road during this time.
He also said rising petrol prices could be a contributory factor in a decline over the past four months in the number of vehicles coming through the testing station.
"There's a few vehicles that are out on the road that may not have warrants," he said.