'Heads will roll': Over 3700 Auckland motorists urged to get WOF rechecks after certifier suspended

Monday, 26 November 2018

More than 5600 motorists have been caught up in the suspension of two warrant of fitness certifiers in Auckland and Northland.

The New Zealand Transport Agency is urging more than 3700 Auckland car owners to get their warrants of fitness rechecked following the suspension of a Henderson certifier Westland Mechanical and Tyre.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford told Radio New Zealand 19 vehicle certifiers were currently being investigated as part of a wide ranging review of the agency's failure to enforce safety standards and 'heads may roll.'

He said NZTA would foot the 'hefty bill' for the thousands of new warrants which he hoped could be done before people embarked on Christmas holiday trips.

The latest recall involves a business trading as Westland Automotive and Tyre and its sole director and shareholder Akram Zakeri has been suspended as a vehicle inspector.

* Transport agency review finds more evidence of serious incidents and crashes

* NZTA told to start handing out red cards on WOFs after fatal crash

* Wrongly warranted car crashes causing death, NZTA shares blame**

NZTA said the action came after concerns about Zakeri's failure to check some aspects of vehicles during warrant of fitness (WOF) assessments, such as brakes, seatbelts, steering and exhaust systems.

'We are unaware of specific concerns relating to individual vehicles however, due to the poor quality of Mr Zakeri's inspections, there is a possibility that some vehicles may have been incorrectly passed.

'For this reason we strongly encourage people who have a current warrant of fitness from Westland Mechanical and Tyre Limited to get their vehicle rechecked,' NZTA said in a prepared statement.

The agency said it would contact all 3721 affected vehicle owners as soon as possible to advise them on recheck options, and they will receive vouchers to cover the cost of having that done.

This brings to 5677 the number of vehicles needing rechecks as a result of possibly substandard WOFs.

Last week the agency issued recall notices to almost 2000 motorists with WOFs from Northland garage Dargaville Diesel Specialists following a fatal accident where it was found a frayed seat belt certified by the company just weeks earlier had failed.

Of the 741 rechecked as of late last week, 63 per cent had failed.

Twyford was at a pains to point out that the suspended WOF inspectors represented a tiny proportion of the 12,000 certifiers around the country.

But he said the problems at NZTA, which went back a decade, were extremely disappointing and recent revelations about suspect warrants had led to him last week appointing the Ministry of Transport to carry out a through review of the agency's work.

However, he would not comment when asked in a Morning Report radio interview whether NZTA chief executive Fergus Gammie should resign.

'When all this is done I'm not going to rule out the fact that heads may roll as part of this organisational failure … let's do the enquiry first, learn the lessons and then we can assign responsibility.'