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Auto shop faces probe for checks
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Posted on Mar 29 1999
The chair of the House committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications urged the Department of Public Safety to investigate a government-sanctioned vehicle inspector for possible violations of its mandate.
Rep. David M. Apatang alleged Kim’s Auto Shop in Lower Base has allowed vehicles with safety deficiencies to pass the inspection without requiring owners to correct the problems.
“Some of these vehicles leave Kim’s Auto Shop with head and tail lights missing, uneven tires, signal lights unrepaired, bumpers hanging loosely off the bed of pick-up trucks, just to mention a few,” he said in a letter to Public Safety Commissioner Charles Ingram.
The owner or any representative of the auto shop could not be reached for comment on the legislator’s allegations.
But Apatang maintained the investigation by the DPS safety inspection unit is necessary as these cars pose potential “traffic perils to all automobile operators” on the roads at a time when there is an alarming increase in the number of traffic accidents on the island.
“I would also like to know if the shop in question is complying with our safety inspection standards as well as with federal safety standards,” he said.
In an interview, the PUTC head disclosed he has yet to raise the issue with the auto shop, but the investigation should be sufficient to monitor its operations.
“Vehicles are going in there and they are not being checked according to safety standards,” Apatang explained, adding .the public safety department should take a look at that station “and do something about it.”
