625 ILCS 5/13-101

(625 ILCS 5/13-101) (from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 13-101)

Sec. 13-101. Submission to safety test; certificate of safety. To promote the safety of the general public, every owner of a second division vehicle, medical transport vehicle, tow truck, first division vehicle including a taxi which is used for a purpose that requires a school bus driver permit, motor vehicle used for driver education training, or contract carrier transporting employees in the course of their employment on a highway of this State in a vehicle designed to carry 15 or fewer passengers shall, before operating the vehicle upon the highways of Illinois, submit it to a "safety test" and secure a certificate of safety furnished by the Department as set forth in Section 13-109. Each second division motor vehicle that pulls or draws a trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer, with a gross weight of 10,001 lbs or more or is registered for a gross weight of 10,001 lbs or more, motor bus, religious organization bus, school bus, senior citizen transportation vehicle, and limousine shall be subject to inspection by the Department and the Department is authorized to establish rules and regulations for the implementation of such inspections.

The owners of each salvage vehicle shall submit it to a "safety test" and secure a certificate of safety furnished by the Department prior to its salvage vehicle inspection pursuant to Section 3-308 of this Code. In implementing and enforcing the provisions of this Section, the Department and other authorized State agencies shall do so in a manner that is not inconsistent with any applicable federal law or regulation so that no federal funding or support is jeopardized by the enactment or application of these provisions.

However, none of the provisions of Chapter 13 requiring safety tests or a certificate of safety shall apply to:

(a) farm tractors, machinery and implements, wagons, wagon-trailers or like farm vehicles used primarily in agricultural pursuits;

(b) vehicles other than school buses, tow trucks and medical transport vehicles owned or operated by a municipal corporation or political subdivision having a population of 1,000,000 or more inhabitants and which are subject to safety tests imposed by local ordinance or resolution;

(c) a semitrailer or trailer having a gross weight of 5,000 pounds or less including vehicle weight and maximum load;

(d) recreational vehicles;

(e) vehicles registered as and displaying Illinois antique vehicle plates and vehicles registered as expanded-use antique vehicles and displaying expanded-use antique vehicle plates;

(f) house trailers equipped and used for living quarters;

(g) vehicles registered as and displaying Illinois permanently mounted equipment plates or similar vehicles eligible therefor but registered as governmental vehicles provided that if said vehicle is reclassified from a permanently mounted equipment plate so as to lose the exemption of not requiring a certificate of safety, such vehicle must be safety tested within 30 days of the reclassification;

(h) vehicles owned or operated by a manufacturer, dealer or transporter displaying a special plate or plates as described in Chapter 3 of this Code while such vehicle is being delivered from the manufacturing or assembly plant directly to the purchasing dealership or distributor, or being temporarily road driven for quality control testing, or from one dealer or distributor to another, or are being moved by the most direct route from one location to another for the purpose of installing special bodies or equipment, or driven for purposes of demonstration by a prospective buyer with the dealer or his agent present in the cab of the vehicle during the demonstration;

(i) pole trailers and auxiliary axles;

(j) special mobile equipment;

(k) vehicles properly registered in another State pursuant to law and displaying a valid registration plate or digital registration plate, except vehicles of contract carriers transporting employees in the course of their employment on a highway of this State in a vehicle designed to carry 15 or fewer passengers are only exempted to the extent that the safety testing requirements applicable to such vehicles in the state of registration are no less stringent than the safety testing requirements applicable to contract carriers that are lawfully registered in Illinois;

(l) water-well boring apparatuses or rigs;

(m) any vehicle which is owned and operated by the federal government and externally displays evidence of such ownership; and

(n) second division vehicles registered for a gross weight of 10,000 pounds or less, except when such second division motor vehicles pull or draw a trailer, semi-trailer or pole trailer having a gross weight of or registered for a gross weight of more than 10,000 pounds; motor buses; religious organization buses; school buses; senior citizen transportation vehicles; medical transport vehicles; tow trucks; and any property carrying vehicles being operated in commerce that are registered for a gross weight of more than 8,000 lbs but less than 10,001 lbs.

The safety test shall include the testing and inspection of brakes, lights, horns, reflectors, rear vision mirrors, mufflers, safety chains, windshields and windshield wipers, warning flags and flares, frame, axle, cab and body, or cab or body, wheels, steering apparatus, and other safety devices and appliances required by this Code and such other safety tests as the Department may by rule or regulation require, for second division vehicles, school buses, medical transport vehicles, tow trucks, first division vehicles including taxis which are used for a purpose that requires a school bus driver permit, motor vehicles used for driver education training, vehicles designed to carry 15 or fewer passengers operated by a contract carrier transporting employees in the course of their employment on a highway of this State, trailers, and semitrailers subject to inspection.

For tow trucks, the safety test and inspection shall also include the inspection of winch mountings, body panels, body mounts, wheel lift swivel points, and sling straps, and other tests and inspections the Department by rule requires for tow trucks.

For driver education vehicles used by public high schools, the vehicle must also be equipped with dual control brakes, a mirror on each side of the vehicle so located as to reflect to the driver a view of the highway for a distance of at least 200 feet to the rear, and a sign visible from the front and the rear identifying the vehicle as a driver education car.

For trucks, truck tractors, trailers, semi-trailers, buses engaged in interstate commerce as defined Section 1-133 of this Code, and first division vehicles including taxis which are used for a purpose that requires a school bus driver permit, the safety test shall be conducted in accordance with the Minimum Periodic Inspection Standards promulgated by the Federal Highway Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation and contained in Appendix G to Subchapter B of Chapter III of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Those standards, as now in effect, are made a part of this Code, in the same manner as though they were set out in full in this Code.

The passing of the safety test shall not be a bar at any time to prosecution for operating a second division vehicle, medical transport vehicle, motor vehicle used for driver education training, or vehicle designed to carry 15 or fewer passengers operated by a contract carrier as provided in this Section that is unsafe, as determined by the standards prescribed in this Code.

(Source: P.A. 103-476, eff. 1-1-24.)