Measures cracking down on window tinting and exhaust manipulation are being introduced to the NCT test this year as part of an effort to crack down on boy racers.
Under changes to be introduced to the NCT test in April vehicles will be required to have a level of noise no greater than 99db and glass in the windscreen and front side windows will also be subjected to tests. Cars that do not pass the tests will be deemed un-roadworthy.
Fianna Fáil Galway West TD Frank Fahey said the new tests will be welcomed by communities in Galway who have been “terrorised” by boy racers.
“Boy racers like the mystery that tinted windows provide but it is important in the interests of safety that other road users are able to see what way a driver is looking,” he said. “It also means these drivers are identifiable to people as they drive past, most importantly the Gardaí.”
He also said the noise from modified exhausts can be “very intimidating”.
“I know many people who have been haunted in their own homes,” he said, “by people roaring past their homes at night time with doctored exhausts.”
Dep Fahey hopes the new measures will make drivers with modified cars “realise that the things they do to their cars have consequences for other people
