ITV failures: A quarter of all vehicles sent for an ITV test in Spain fail on simple faults that are easily remedied, according to the DGT
Lights and indicators are a key part of vehicle safety. They allow you to see and be seen by other road users. However, it is these systems that owners neglect the most and that account for one in four ITV failures, reports the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT).
The vehicle’s lighting and signaling system is an essential element for road safety, both one’s own and that of other road users, as it allows drivers to see and be seen both on the streets and on the highways.
However, according to data published and analysed by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, and the Spanish Association of Collaborating Entities of the Administration in the Technical Inspection of Vehicles (AECA-ITV) most defects serious are detected when the ITV is carried out, with 26% of serious failures reported in 2021 by the ITV stations.
Lighting defects
Vehicles with these defects fail when the technicians check the complete lighting system, either lights do not work, do so insufficiently, or do not work as intended by the manufacturer.
Regarding failures by type of vehicle, the data shows that motorcycles and quads have the most lighting and signaling defects, accounting for 56.1% of the serious failures detected. They are followed by agricultural vehicles, in which 29.4% of serious defects were reported.
In the case of trailers and semi-trailers, the proportion is 25.6%; in vans and trucks weighing less than 3,500 kilos, 24.4%; in ambulances and taxis, 18.5%.
Correct functioning of the vehicle’s lighting system is essential, since driving with a blown lamp or poorly regulated headlights affects both the safety of the vehicle itself and that of other road users.
Headlamp height
Altering headlight height means, for example, that if they go too low we will be illuminating only a short distance from our position, while if they go too high we can dazzle other users. If some light does not work, we will not only see less and our vision will be impaired; Or it can even cause a car to be mistaken for a motorcycle if only one of its two headlights works, causing the range of our vehicle or the distances to be miscalculated- generating a serious risk of an accident.
Checking the status of the lighting system is very simple. With a simple look around the vehicle, you can detect the lights that are not working. Likewise, if we want to check that the brake lights work, but we are alone and nobody can help us, we can bring the rear of the vehicle closer to a wall in a dark area and brake, checking through the mirrors if the light illuminates the three key points: left side, right side and, in the case of vehicles equipped with a third brake light, center.
Read more: DGT announces deadline to replace warning triangles
