ATTT: Imported Used Cars Pose a Threat

[Keith Woolford]

This legislation is way overdue, imo.

 

ATTT: Imported Used Cars Pose a Threat

In the National Assembly a bill is discussed that would regulate the importation of used or salvage cars.

 

The director of the Transit and Land Transportation Authority (ATTT) , Julio González , asked the Trade and Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly to move forward with the 580 bill, which seeks to regulate and control the importation of used vehicles.

In a letter addressed to the president of the commission, Nelson Jackson Palma , González informed that in the last eight years an average of 14 thousand 600 used vehicles have entered the country, of which a significant percentage are vehicles "with a prohibition of registration and circulation in their countries of origin for not complying with the required security conditions ".

In the note, the official explained that the Unique Registration Department of Motor Vehicles of the ATTT keeps a record of said vehicles and that they have realized that they are "salvages" from other countries, due to the documentation they present.

"It is the documentation used for their registration, which identifies them as salvage vehicles and vehicles with certificates of destruction," the letter says.

He adds that, according to the documents, these vehicles have been declared in "total loss due to natural disasters, floods and the like; for serious injuries, dismantling or cut into parts ".

It is "undoubtedly that vehicles such as the ones described above represent a threat to safety, both for the occupants and the rest of the public road users," Gonzalez added in the letter.

CONTAMINATE

The ATTT also made it clear that the used cars that enter the country are also concerned about the level of pollution they generate.

"In many cases, they far exceed the limits established by the existing standard in the matter," the entity said.

"The ATTT, as guarantor and safeguard road of the Republic of Panama, greatly supports the initiative, as it requires a rule to regulate the imports of used cars," it is added in the note signed by Gonzalez.

Article 15 of Law 51 of June 28, 2017, which regulates road transport, indicates that "to provide cargo transport service by highways of the national territory it is prohibited to import vehicles with 10 years or more of manufacture".

The Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition Authority also endorses the approval of the document, although it requested that some form changes be made to it.

The initiative, which was presented by the panameñista José Antonio Domínguez and that seeks, among other aspects, that the "salvage" cars be discharged in the Vehicular Registry and in the corresponding municipality, for its subsequent withdrawal from circulation, was sent to a subcommittee.

[TwoSailors]

Hopefully to stop the tens of thousands of cars that received hurricane damage from coming here.