Subject: New road traffic regulations

New road traffic regulations have recently been issued by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Land
Transport & Shipping. Some of these new regulations have already come into force whilst others will
come into force on the 1st August 2010.

The main new regulations which have already come into force are as follows:

1. No person shall, while driving a motor vehicle, use a hand-held or a hand-free microphone or
telephone handset to answer or make a call no matter how urgent the call is (according to the police, this

prohibition applies to bluetooth equipment as well);

2. No person shall park his vehicle:

(a) On the side of a road where there is a continuous longitudinal white line prohibiting overtaking (see
illustration below);

(b) Near or against a kerb (a stone edging to a pavement or raised path) in such a way as to obstruct
free access to the footpath; or
(c) Within a distance of 5 metres from any street corner or junction (previously 10 feet) - see illustration
below;
3. No person shall cause any motor vehicle to stand on a road unless the near side of the vehicle is
as close as may be to the edge of the carriageway and not further away than 200 milimetres

(see illustration below);

4. Every motor vehicle shall carry the tools and other equipment which may be necessary for
effecting running repairs or changing wheels;

5. The driver of a motor vehicle shall not allow the engine of his vehicle to operate for more than 5
consecutive minutes when the vehicle is stationary unless it is due to traffic conditions or mechanical
difficulties over which the driver has no control or it is necessary to operate heating and cooling or
auxiliary equipment installed on the vehicle; and

6. All motor vehicles shall be equipped with one emergency triangular warning sign and the driver
shall display same at a minimum distance of 15 metres to the rear of the broken down vehicle

(see illustration below);

7. We also wish to remind you that where a car is equipped with seat belts at the rear seat, any person
riding in the rear seat of the car should wear such seat belt. New regulations have now

introduced two new obligations relating to seat belts, namely:

(a) where a person is riding in the front or the rear seat of a motor vehicle, the driver shall not, without
reasonable excuse, drive the vehicle unless that person is wearing a seat belt; and

(b) where anchorage points for seat belts (i.e. points designed to hold a seat belt securely in
position on the vehicle) are provided for in a motor vehicle, but the vehicle is not equipped with seat belts,
the owner of the motor vehicle shall cause it to be equipped with the appropriate seat belts.

The provisions which will come into force on the 1st August 2010 are as follows:
1. Every motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle or an autocycle, shall carry a fire extinguisher at all
times. The fire extinguisher shall weigh not less than 500

grams and shall be either a water-type fire extinguisher, a vapourising agent fire extinguisher or a dry
chemical fire extinguisher; and

2. All motor vehicles shall bear registration plates as follows: on the front of the vehicle, the
registration plate should have black characters on a white background and on the back of the
vehicle, it should have black characters on a yellow background.