On a mission to curb emissions (2)

The Malta Transport Authority informs us (June 14) that a whopping 150,000 sms emission alert reports have been filed since 2005, but then only some 600 were tested over the last 12 months. The effectiveness of the ADT's methods speaks for itself.

The policy to wait until licence renewal to force those who do not show up for tests when called up to do so is clearly mistaken. Such vehicles are being allowed on the road for an average six months before something is done about their vehicle emissions. These cowboys should be pulled in straight away and fined, not left to continue polluting our air.

As to buses: 63 buses were tested and 10 (yes, 10) failed. How many out of the few hundred buses that grace our roads can anyone drive behind with open windows? Everybody knows that buses and large vehicles in Malta discharge large amounts of fumes, yet the authority managed to fail a staggering 10 buses these last 12 months.

So one has to ask: What sort of emissions testing is actually carried out? What quantity of deadly exhaust must a vehicle emit to fail a test? Do the authority's test tolerance levels fall within EU guidelines/limits? Should we be surprised if they don't, by a wide margin?