Chap. 330.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 109 of Chapter 342 of the Acts
of General Assembly of 1932, approved March 26, 1932, and known, designatéd,
and cited as the Motor Vehicle Code of Virginia, as heretofore amended, in
relation to Official Inspections and Official Inspection Stations, and to add a
new section to the Motor Vehicle Code numbered 53-1 relative to the speed of
motor vehicles on roads along the borders of certain towns. [S B 49]

Approved March 29, 1940

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That
section one hundred and nine of chapter three hundred and forty-two
of the Acts of General Assembly of nineteen hundred and thirty-two,
approved March twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, and.
known, designated, and cited as the Motor Vehicle Code of Virginia,
ne amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
ollows:

Section 109. Enforcement Provisions.—(a) The director is au-
thorized at any time to compel, by proclamation of the Governor or
otherwise, the owner and/or operator of any motor vehicle, trailer or
semi-trailer operated upon a highway within this Commonwealth to
submit such vehicle to an inspection of its mechanism and equipment
by an official inspection station, designated for that purpose, and
any such owner and/or operator who fails to so submit a motor ve-
hicle, trailer or semi-trailer operated upon the highways of this State
to such inspection, or who fails or refuses to correct or have corrected
in accordance with the requirements of this act, any mechanical de-
fects found by such inspection to exist, shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor and shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of
section one hundred and eighteen, and each operation of such motor
vehicle, trailer or semi-trailer over any highway in this State after
failure to comply with this law shall constitute a separate offense. —

(b) The director is authorized to designate, furnish instructions
to, and to supervise official inspection stations for the inspection of
motor vehicles and/of vehicles and for adjusting and correcting
equipment enumerated in this act in such a manner as to conform to
specifications hereinbefore set forth. And the director shall adopt and
furnish to such official inspection stations, rules and regulations gov-
erning the making of inspections herein provided for and may require
the filing by the owner and/or operator of such station of a surety
bond conditioned upon the faithful performance of the duties required
by this act and the rules and regulations promulgated by the director.
The director may at any time, after five days’ notice, revoke the
designation or appointment of any official inspection station desig-
nated or appointed by him. When the equipment has been corrected
in accordance with this act the official inspection station shall issue to
the operator or owner of the vehicle, on forms furnished by the de-
partment, a duplicate of which is retained by such station, a certificate
showing the date of correction, registration number of the vehicle and
the official designation of such station; provided, however, that com-
mon carriers, operating under certificate from the State Corporation
Commission, who desire to do so may install or use with the approval
of the director, private inspection stations for the inspection and cor-
rection of their equipment.

(c) The director shall not authorize or designate any person, firm,
or corporation as an official inspection station unless and until such
person, firm, or corporation shall satisfy the director under such
regulations as the director shall prescribe that such person, firm, or
corporation has met and will continue to conform with at least the
following minimum standards:

(1) The station is equipped with sufficient mechanical equipment
and apparatus and is manned with skilled and competent automotive
mechanics to make a complete and thorough inspection in accordance
with the provisions of this section;

(2) That sufficient space, facilities, or other adequate means are
provided by the said station at the place where the official inspections
are to be made for testing the brakes, headlights and steering mech-
anism of motor vehicles and to ascertain that motor vehicles inspected
by such station shall meet such safety standards as may be prescribed
by the director under the terms of this act;

(3) That the person making the actual inspection for the station,
or under whose immediate personal supervision such inspection is
made, shall have not less than one year’s practical experience as an
automotive mechanic; and

(4) No person shall be designated by such station to make such
inspections for it unless said person has been approved for that pur-
pose by the Division of Motor Vehicles.

(d) Each official inspection station may make a charge of twenty-
five cents (25c) for each such inspection, but the imposition of such
charge shall not be mandatory, provided, however, that no such
charge shall be made unless the station contracts therefor beforehand.

(e) The term “inspection” as herein used shall not include repairs
or adjustments. Repairs or adjustments: necessary to bring the
vehicle in conformity with this act may be made by agreement be-
tween the owner and such station or whatever repair station the
owner may select. If such adjustments or repairs are made by any-
one other than an official inspection station such vehicle must again
be inspected and approved by an official inspection station. No
person, firm, or corporation, unless authorized and designated as
such in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall, either
directly or indirectly, display, advertise, or represent that such person,
firm or corporation is an official inspection station.

(f) Any person, firm, or corporation violating this section shall,
except as herein otherwise provided, be punished by a fine of not less
than twenty-five ($25.00) dollars nor more than five hundred ($500.00)
dollars, for the first offense, and not less than one hundred ($100.00)
dollars nor more than one thousand ($1,000.00) dollars for each
subsequent offense, and, if the violation is by an official inspection
station, in addition to such fine, the Director of the Division of Motor
Vehicles shall revoke the authority and cancel the appointment and
designation of such official inspection station if, in his opinion, after a
hearing, the facts warrant such action, irrespective of whether or not
the violation is a first offense against this section.

(zg) The director shall promulgate regulations for the inspections
of motor vehicles under this act and shall furnish each official in-
spection station with a printed set of such regulations suitable for
posting and such station shall post the same in a conspicuous place
in the portion of its premises where such inspections are made, and
shall cause its employees making official inspections for it and on its
behalf to be conversant with such regulations.

(h) Neither the director nor any employee of said department
shall be pecuniarily interested in any company writing bonds for the
official inspection stations nor shall any employee of said department
solicit business for any such bonding companies. |

Section 53-1. No vehicle shall be driven at a speed in excess of
thirty-five miles per hour along the borders of any town on any high-
way on which the traffic count exceeds four thousand vehicles per
average twenty-four hour day as of the day this act takes effect. It
shall be the duty of the State Highway Commissioner to cause such
highways to be adequately marked with signs in conformity with this
section and any driver violating this section shall be guilty of reckless
driving and on conviction punished as provided in section 61 hereof.