The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use)(Amendment)(No. 4) Regulations 2005

• Citation: S.I. 2005/3165
• Sections: 7

Section 1 Citation and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use)(Amendment)(No. 4) Regulations 2005 and shall come into force on 12th December 2005.

Section 2 Preliminary

The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of these Regulations.

Section 3 Amendment of regulation 3 (interpretation)

In regulation 3(2), in the definition “Community Directive, followed by a number”, after the words “Commission of the European Communities”, there shall be added “or the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union”.

Section 4 Amendment of regulation 4 (application and exemptions)

(1) Regulation 4 shall be amended as follows.

(2) In paragraph (4)—

(a) insert at the start of paragraph (4), the words “Subject to paragraph (7),”; and

(b) in the Table add the following item after item 10—

A vehicle being used on a road by a vehicle examiner, who has been authorised in writing by the Secretary of State for the purpose of—

submitting the vehicle for an examination under section 45 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 in order to ascertain whether the examination is carried out in accordance with regulations made under that section; or

removing the vehicle following that examination.

(3) After paragraph (6) insert—

(7) The exemption provided by item 11 in the Table in paragraph (4) shall only apply to the extent that the vehicle examiner using the vehicle in question reasonably believes that any defects in that vehicle do not give rise to a danger of injury to any person while it is being used by that person for a purpose mentioned in that item.

(8) In item 11 in the Table in paragraph (4) and paragraph (7), “vehicle examiner” means an examiner appointed under section 66A of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

Section 5 Amendment of regulation 33 (mirrors)

For regulation 33, there shall be substituted the regulation set out in the Schedule to these Regulations.

Section 6 Amendment to Schedule 2 (Community Directives and ECE Regulations)

(1) In Table 1 in Schedule 2, in the appropriate numerical positions, there shall be added the following items—

Devices for

indirect vision

71/127 as

amended by 79/795, 85/205, 86/562 and 88/321

(2) In Table 2 in Schedule 2, after item 21A there shall be added the following item—

Section 33 Mirrors and other devices for indirect vision

(1) Save as provided in paragraphs (5) and (6), a motor vehicle (not being a road roller) which is of a class specified in an item in column 2 of the Table shall be fitted with such mirror or mirrors or other device for indirect vision, if any, as are specified in that item in column 3; and any mirror or other device for indirect vision which is fitted to such a vehicle shall, whether or not it is required to be fitted, comply with the requirements, if any, specified in that item in columns 4 and 5.

(2) Save as provided in paragraph (5), each exterior mirror with which a vehicle is required to be fitted in accordance with item 2 or 8 of the Table shall, if the vehicle has a technically permissible maximum weight (as mentioned in Annex 1 to Community Directive 71/127) exceeding 3500 kg , be a Class II mirror (as described in that Annex) and shall in any other case be a Class II or a Class III mirror (as described in that Annex).

(3) Save as provided in paragraph (5), in the case of a wheeled motor vehicle described in item 1, 2, 10 or 11 of the Table which is first used on or after 1st April 1969 the edges of any interior mirror shall be surrounded by some material such as will render it unlikely that severe cuts would be caused if the mirror or that material were struck by any occupant of the vehicle.

(4) Save as provided in paragraph (5), in the case of a motor vehicle falling within paragraph (a) in column 4 of items 1 and 7, or within item 8, of the Table—

(a) each mirror shall be fixed to the vehicle in such a way that it remains steady under normal driving conditions;

(b) each exterior mirror on a vehicle fitted with windows and a windscreen shall be visible to the driver, when in his driving position, through a side window or through the portion of the windscreen which is swept by the windscreen wiper;

(c) where the bottom edge of an exterior mirror is less than 2 m above the road surface when the vehicle is laden, that mirror shall not project more than 20 cm beyond the overall width of the vehicle or, in a case where the vehicle is drawing a trailer which has an overall width greater than that of the drawing vehicle, more than 20 cm beyond the overall width of the trailer;

(d) where the bottom edge of an exterior mirror, which complies with the requirements of Community Directive 2003/97 or 2005/27 or ECE Regulation 46.02, is less than 2 m above the road surface when the vehicle is laden, that mirror shall not project more than 25 cm beyond the overall width of the vehicle or, in the case where the vehicle is drawing a trailer which has an overall width greater than that of the drawing vehicle, more than 25 cm beyond the overall width of the trailer;

(e) each interior mirror shall be capable of being adjusted by the driver when in his driving position; and

(f) except in the case of a mirror which, if knocked out of its alignment, can be returned to its former position without needing to be adjusted, each exterior mirror on the driver’s side of the vehicle shall be capable of being adjusted by the driver when in his driving position, but this requirement shall not prevent such a mirror from being locked into position from the outside of the vehicle.

(5) Instead of complying with paragraphs (1) to (4) a vehicle may comply—

(a) if it is a goods vehicle with a maximum gross weight exceeding 3500 kg first used on or after 1st April 1985 and before 1st August 1989, with Community Directive 79/795, 85/205, 86/562 or 88/321 or ECE Regulation 46.01;

(b) if it is a goods vehicle first used on or after 1st August 1989 and before 26th January 2007—

(i) in the case of a vehicle with a maximum gross weight exceeding 3500 kg but not exceeding 12,000 kg, with Community Directive 79/795, 85/205, 86/562 or 88/321 or ECE Regulation 46.01; and

(ii) in the case of a vehicle with a maximum gross weight exceeding 12,000 kg, with Community Directive 85/205, 86/562 or 88/321 or ECE Regulation 46.01;

(c) if it is an agricultural motor vehicle, with Community Directive 71/127, 74/346, 79/795, 85/205, 86/562 or 88/321 or ECE Regulation 46.01;

(d) if it is a two-wheeled motor cycle with or without a side-car, with Community Directive 71/127, 79/795, 80/780, 85/205, 86/562 or 88/321 or ECE Regulation 46.01; and

(e) if it is any other vehicle, with Community Directive 71/127, 79/795, 85/205, 86/562 or 88/321 or ECE Regulation 46.01.

(6) Instead of complying with the provisions of column 4 in items 3, 4, 7 or 8 of the Table a mirror may comply with the requirements as to construction and testing set out in—

(a) Annex I to Community Directive 71/127, excluding paragraphs 2.3.4 and 2.6;

(b) Annex I to Community Directive 79/795, excluding paragraphs 2.3.3 and 2.6;

(c) Annex II to Community Directive 2003/97, excluding paragraph 3.4; or

(d) Annex II to Community Directive 2005/27, excluding paragraph 3.4.

(7) In this regulation—

(a) “devices for indirect vision” mean devices to observe the traffic area adjacent to the vehicle which cannot be observed by direct vision and may include conventional mirrors, camera-monitors or other devices able to present information about the indirect field of vision to the driver;

(b) “mirror” means any device with a reflecting surface, excluding devices such as periscopes, intended to give a clear view to the rear, side or front of the vehicle;

(c) “interior mirror” means a device defined in sub-paragraph (a), which can be fitted in the passenger compartment of a vehicle;

(d) “exterior mirror” means a device defined in sub-paragraph (a), which can be fitted on the external surface of a vehicle.

(8) In the case of—

(a) an agricultural motor vehicle, or

(b) a vehicle described in items 2 or 8 in the Table,

when drawing a trailer the references to a vehicle in the definitions in paragraph (7) shall be construed as including references to that trailer.

TABLE

(regulation 33(1))

A motor vehicle which is—

drawing a trailer, if a person is carried on the trailer so that he has an uninterrupted view to the rear and has an efficient means of communicating to the driver the effect of signals given by the drivers of other vehicles to the rear;

a works truck;

a track-laying agricultural motor vehicle; and

a wheeled agricultural motor vehicle first used before 1st June 1978, if, in each case, the driver can easily obtain a view to the rear;

a pedestrian-controlled vehicle;

a chassis being driven from the place where it has been manufactured to the place where it is to receive a vehicle body; or

an agricultural motor vehicle which has an unladen weight exceeding 7370 kg and which—

is a track-laying vehicle or

is a wheeled vehicle first used before 1st June 1978.

(a) If the vehicle is a wheeled vehicle first used on or after 1st June 1978, Item 2 of Annex I to Community Directive 71/127 or 79/795 or Annex II to Community Directive 86/562 or 88/321 or paragraphs 4 to 8 of ECE Regulation 46.01 and paragraph (4) of this regulation.

(b) In other cases, none, except as specified in paragraph (3).

A motor vehicle not included in item 1, which is—

a wheeled locomotive or a wheeled motor tractor first used in either case on or after 1st June 1978;

an agricultural motor vehicle, not being a track-laying vehicle with an unladen weight not exceeding 7370 kg (which falls in item 11) or a wheeled agricultural motor vehicle first used after 1st June 1986 which is driven at more than 20 mph (which falls in item 8); or

a works truck.

(a) a bus; or

(b) a goods vehicle with a maximum gross weight exceeding 3500 kg (not being an agricultural motor vehicle or one which is not driven at more than 20 mph) other than a vehicle described in item 5.

(a) a bus;

(b) a goods vehicle with a maximum gross weight—

(b)

(i) Mirrors or other devices for indirect vision complying with Community Directive 2005/27.

(i) exceeding 3500 kg but not exceeding 7500 kg; or

(ii) exceeding 7500 kg but not exceeding 12,000 kg;

(not being an agricultural motor vehicle or one which is not driven at more than 20 mph).

(a) If the vehicle is first used on or after 1st October 1978, Item 2 of Annex I to Community Directive 71/127, 79/795 or 80/780 or Annex II to Community Directive 86/562 or 88/321 or paragraphs 4 to 8 of ECE Regulation 46.01 and paragraph (4) of this regulation.

(b) In other cases, none.

(i) At least one exterior mirror fitted on the offside of the vehicle; and

(ii) at least one interior mirror, unless a mirror so fitted would give the driver no view to the rear of the vehicle; and

(iii) at least one exterior mirror fitted on the nearside of the vehicle unless an interior mirror gives the driver an adequate view to the rear.

A wheeled motor vehicle, not in items 1 to 7, first used before 1st June 1978 (or in the case of a Ford Transit motor car, 10th July 1978) and a track-laying motor vehicle which is not an agricultural motor vehicle first used on or after 1st January 1958, which in either case is—

a bus;

a dual-purpose vehicle; or

a goods vehicle.