1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Road Vehicles Lighting (Amendment) Regulations 1987 and shall come into force on 1st January 1988.

2.-(1) The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1984(3) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of these Regulations.

(2) The Secretary of State is satisfied that-

(a)it is requisite that the provisions of these Regulations, which vary the requirements as regards the construction of the vehicles to which they apply, shall apply to such of those vehicles as are registered under the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971(4) before the expiration of one year from the making of the Regulations; and

(b)notwithstanding that those provisions will then apply to those vehicles, no undue hardship or inconvenience will be caused thereby.

3.-(1) After regulation 15 (restrictions on fitting of warning beacons, special warning lamps and similar devices), there shall be inserted the following new regulation-

"Obligatory warning beacons

15A.-(1) Subject to paragraph (2), no person shall use, or cause or permit to be used, on an unrestricted dual-carriageway road any motor vehicle with four or more wheels having a maximum speed not exceeding 25 miles per hour unless it or any trailer being drawn by it is fitted with at least one warning beacon showing an amber light.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply in relation to-

(a)any motor vehicle first used before 1st January 1947; and

(b)any motor vehicle, or any trailer being drawn by it, to which paragraph (1) would otherwise apply, when that vehicle or trailer is on any carriageway of an unrestricted dual-carriageway road for the purpose only of crossing that road in the quickest manner practicable in the circumstances.

(3) Warning beacons fitted in accordance with paragraph (1) shall comply with Schedule 15.

(4) A road is an unrestricted road for the purposes of this regulation and of regulation 22A if any motor vehicle may lawfully be driven on it at a speed exceeding 50 miles per hour.

(5) In this regulation and in regulation 22A "dual-carriageway road" has the same meaning as in Schedule 6 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984(5)."

(2) After regulation 22 (requirements about the use of headlamps and front fog lamps), there shall be inserted the following new regulation-

"Requirements about the use of warning beacons

22A.  No person shall use, or cause or permit to be used, on an unrestricted dual-carriageway road a vehicle which is required to be fitted with at least one warning beacon by regulation 15A unless every such beacon is kept lit."

4.  In paragraph (2) of regulation 11 (colour of light shown by lamps and reflectors), at the end of sub-paragraph (k)(iv) there shall be added the words "or any trailer drawn by such a vehicle".

5.  In paragraph (1) of regulation 15 (restrictions on fitting of warning beacons etc), for the words "Regulation 11" there shall be substituted the words "regulations 11 and 15A".

6.  In the Table in regulation 23 (requirements about the use of headlamps and front fog lamps), in sub-paragraph (ii) in column 3 in item 7, for the words "necessary or desirable" there shall be substituted the words "required or necessary or desirable".

7.  In Schedule 15, at the end of paragraph 3 there shall be added the words "or any trailer being drawn by it".

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1984 to require slow-moving vehicles to show an amber warning light when on dual-carriageway roads (other than motorways) not subject to a speed limit of 50 miles per hour or less.

Regulation 3 inserts two new regulations. New regulation 15A prohibits (with certain exemptions) the use on such a dual carriageway road of a slow-moving motor vehicle (meaning a vehicle with four or more wheels and a maximum speed not exceeding 25 mph) unless it is fitted with at least one warning beacon showing an amber light. New regulation 22A requires every such beacon to be kept lit.

Regulations 4 to 7 contain consequential amendments.