According to the director of resources and analysis at the Ministry of Public Works, Manuel Morban, around 25,000 vehicles that have been checked have not been issued the vehicle inspection sticker, due to their condition. He said that so far 460,000 vehicles have been checked although 800,000 in total should have a sticker, out of the 1.2 million vehicles in the country. Some do not need to undergo the inspection.
He said that most of the vehicles that failed the inspection were public passenger transport vehicles that did not deserve to be on the streets due to problems including broken windscreens, no headlights or chassis in bad condition.
He said he did not know what the authorities would do with the vehicles that have failed the inspection, and went on to say that unlike public transport vehicle drivers, owners of private vehicles were trying to correct the defects to able to pass the inspection. He said that as a way of speeding up the processes they had opened checking centers at Coliseo Carlos Teo Cruz, Los Tres Ojos in Santo Domingo East, Villa Mella and in the offices of the Metropolitan Bus Service (OMSA) in Santo Domingo East.
Morban said that they were checking around 8,000 vehicles across the country every day, and hoped that by the time the process had finished, at the end of the month, they will have checked between 90 and 95% of the vehicles that needed to be checked.
Despite the decision to remove cars that do not meet minimum standards, any observer can see that unionized public transport vehicles that do not comply with the regulations still continue to circulate in Santo Domingo main streets.
On the other hand, the impact of the cars that have been banned from circulation is being felt in traffic being less jammed in the cities.