http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/16683.html

Imported clunkers leading to accidents
BY ELINO VILLANUEVA
El Universal
Domingo 22 de enero de 2006
Miami Herald, página 1

Baja California Sur´s high rate of traffic accidents is related to high numbers of aging cars in bad condition.
LA PAZ, Baja California Sur - The state of Baja California Sur not only has the nation´s highest rate of traffic accidents, it also has the highest percentage of car ownership at 3.75 people per car. The two problems are connected, say officials, because roads jammed with cars are fertile ground for accidents.

But Baja California has another related problem: close to 70 percent of all cars in the state are used vehicles imported from the United States. And, say some, the poor condition of those vehicles also contribute to a lack of road safety.

"As much as we may try to deny it, we are like a huge dumping ground for vehicles from the United States," said Victor MartÃÂ*nez, founder of the state chapter of the Green Party.

"Every year, there are thousands of cars from the United States that are no longer road legal that come into the country, and the tragedy is that those cars are needed here, because they are cheaper."

According to Miguel Mondragón González, head of the Advisory for Accident Prevention, the large number of vehicles on the road and the quality of those vehicles make residents four times more likely to die in a car accident than people from Tijuana, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Acapulco, and even Mexico City.

The state has been the national leader in traffic fatalities since 1996.

In addition, statistics from a traffic safety watch group say that between six and seven of every 10 cars in the state are second-hand vehicles from the United States, and those vehicles have an average age of 10 years upon importation.

Mondragón González said that the major problem with these vehicles is that their engines and brakes do not work well, which results in a higher security risk.

Furthermore, many of these cars are not legally registered in the state and circulate with their expired U.S. license plates.

MartÃÂ*nez criticized a decree issued last year by President Vicente Fox that allows Mexicans to import 10- to 15-year-old cars from the U.S. and Canada.

"Now they even want to send us the cars that were damaged by hurricanes in the southeastern United States," he said, "without hardly giving them any inspection whatsoever."