Oklahoma does not have a current safety inspection program (HOORAY!) but they used to ticket people if the glass was bad enough.
Funny story. I used to live in Oklahoma City years ago and I used to pass a guy on the Interstate while going to work who drove a 65 LeMans, 4 dr. granny car.
This car did not even have a windshield or front door glass on either side.
Thirty degrees outside, snowing, and he would be tooling along about 60 MPH with a ski mask and Mount Everest capable coat and gloves on.
Even in the rain, he drove this thing and I could never understand how in the world he managed to avoid getting that rig impounded. No windshield, obviously no safety sticker.
Reminds me of a story. There are few cars in Tennessee without some windshield damage because of the gravel trucks. I was stationed in California once and we drove back to Tenn to visit family. While crossing the desert in AZ on the way back, I commented to my wife that this was the first time we had driven a car in Tenn and didn’t get a broken windshield. Just then, a rock came from nowhere (blown off a cliff by the wind I guess) and cracked the windshield.
This car did not even have a windshield or front door glass on either side.
“Well, officer, I dare you to show me any cracks or other damage to my windshield glass!” I wonder if windshields are actually required everywhere – remember the old Jeeps with the fold-down windshields? Would they be legal to drive that way?
“Oklahoma does not have a current safety inspection program (HOORAY!) but they used to ticket people if the glass was bad enough.”
Think of all those uninspected vehicles with front ends that are in disrepair heading at you on two lane roads at 60 mph…you really don’t want uninspected cars on the road!
I WAS a state inspector (not out of choice) and the “safety inspection” program was a joke.
When it first started, the fee was 2 dollars. Of this, the mechanic gets a buck and the other dollar gets split up into varying programs, including the state troopers retirement fund. (Bit of a conflict there.)
After some years the fee was raised to 5 dollars and the mechanic gets 2 dollars.
The state says that a proper inspection should consume over 1 hour of time. Now consider the following points.
How many cars will pass on the first week of the month and fail on many areas the next month?
How many of the inspectors (Jiffy Lubes and places of this type) have “certified” inspectors that even know how to inspect a ball joint or whatever else?
How much incentive is there going to be for a mechanic to spend over an hour of his time doing an inspection for a measly one dollar; later raised to 2 bucks?
1 to 2 dollars an hour is not much of a paycheck.
When the program was terminated about 5 or so years ago the doom and gloomers were all over TV stating that “unsafe” cars would be crashing left and right, the death toll from this would skyrocket, etc, etc.
It did not happen, even to a small degree.
Lastly, and to prove a point. When I was sent back to be recertified under the “new” regulations do you know what the entire test consisted of after sitting through the class?
You were given a piece of paper and asked to list the 10 basic areas (horn, lighting, tires, etc.) that should be checked. That’s it, with 7 out of 10 a passing grade.
For what it’s worth I tried to flunk the test on purpose and could not even do that.
The trooper came into the shop looking for me, grilled me a bit, and passed me anyway.
Still feel confident in the “inspection programs”?
Maybee Oklahoma law is like Washington law. In the state of Washington there is no law requiring a motor vehicle to have a windshield. The occupants of the vehicle are required to have eye protection, the vehicle has to be equiped with 2 windshield wipers, and the vehicle has to have 2 mirrors to capable of viewing the rear of the vehicle but no windshield. A crack that impairs the vision of the driver is a ticketable offense though.
We got our windshield chipped on the border with WY by a semi driving too fast and then it cracked in WY ? when it got really cold last winter.
Greasy Jack is right that most cars in the Rocky Mtns have chips / cracks and we know CO has nothing in the law on this and we just had our car pass emissions last month.
We havent heard any stories about the cracks causing structural or other problems either so guess we wont be getting our windshield fixed any time soon either!!!