Over 700 of you signed the petition against PTI on the MAG Ireland stand at the RDS bike show back in March, and hundreds more have since added their names in opposition to mandatory periodic technical inspections (an NCT style test for motorcycles).
MAG Ireland’s Linda O’Loideoin brought the Irish signatures to Brussels on Friday 15th October, where they were combined with tens of thousands of signatures from other riders rights groups across Europe as members of FEMA (The Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations) gathered to present the petition against PTI to the EU Commission. In all, there were some 110,000 signatures presented.
From left to right: NMCU representative Morten Hansen, FEMA president Gerard Livett and FFMC representative Frédéric Jorge, delivering signatures from concerned riders at the European Commission's Road Safety Unit in Brussels
Linda O Loideoin, MAG Ireland’s road safety officer, had this to say;
Our own RSA has said it would like to introduce mandatory periodic technical inspection, or PTI, of motorcycles for “equality” reasons, yet accepts that mechanical failure is not a significant contributory factor in motorcycle accident causation. PTI for motorcycles is therefore an enormously expensive solution to a problem that simply doesn’t exist.
The millions of Euro needed to make it work in the Irish context would simply make the cost per test prohibitive. Not only that, but MAG Ireland has spoken to the company which has the contract for the National Car Test, and they say they are in a position to test motorcycles despite not employing any bike mechanics. They said no bikes come without a center stand and their machinery is only equipped for center stand use.
Huge thanks must to everyone who signed the petition. MAG Ireland is determined to drive home the point that PTI is – at best – a partial solution to the less than 1% of accidents caused by mechanical failure in a mode of transport that is itself only about 2% of Irish road traffic. It is therefore a hugely expensive solution to a non existent problem.
If you missed out on signing the petition against PTI, you can still lend your support by joining MAG and adding your voice to the 110,000 who signed the petition. For more on this story see the FEMA web site article at;