Quebec has become the first Canadian province to temporarily ban imports of right-hand-drive vehicles.
For the next six months, no one in the province will be able to import a personal vehicle designed to drive on the left side of the road.
The province’s automobile insurance board says it wants time to evaluate the safety of the vehicles, but owners of right-hand-drive vehicles say there is no cause for concern.
Montrealer Paul Nunes said Wednesday his wife’s 19-year-old Nissan 300ZX is one of the many cars his company has imported to Quebec from Japan.
“It’s a normal car,” he said. “There’s no modifications. It’s in excellent condition. It sailed through its inspection.”
Nunes can’t understand why Quebec would impose a six-month moratorium on right-hand-drive vehicles, and he worries other provinces might follow suit.
“This may domino. Other transport ministries may use this as leverage to get similar legislation passed,” he said.
Nunes said more than 2,000 owners have signed an online petition against the moratorium.
Quebec’s automobile insurance board, the Société de l’Assurance Automobile du Québec (SAAQ), says there are about 3,000 right-hand-drive vehicles on the province’s roads. It says the trend is growing because there are plenty of good second-hand cars available in Japan, where people drive on the left side of the road.
A board spokesman, Gaëtan Bergeron, said right-hand-drive cars aren’t designed for Quebec roads, and they don’t always meet Transport Canada safety standards.
Bergeron acknowledged there have been no fatalities as a result of the right-hand-drive aspect of a vehicle, but, he said, the board wants to analyze accident reports and consult other cities before the government considers lifting the ban.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/05/06/righthand-drive.html#ixzz0kQdXdobv