Rear View Mirror Adornments.

[melv16]

I've just seen a car with a decoration that was at least 18" long and 6" wide dangling from the rear view mirror. Is this illegal?

[weecalf]

Was it a pair of wellington ,you know some people have cute wee booties dangling to keep the traffic warden happy .

[melv16]

It looked like a scarf with dangly bits on it.

[Baldric]

All the rules I can find refer to things stuck to the screen and not hanging from the mirror so difficult to say. If it's obstructing the 'swept area' of the screen then I would think it is, or certainly should be imo.

[weecalf]

Maybe it's a Manchester United scarf which blew back into the car after attempts to fire it out the window

[SlackAlice]

I'm the same view as Baldric.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes

[sddsddean]

As Baldric says, anything in the swept area of the windscreen is illegal, with a few exceptions. VED (taxdisc) used to be, but is now redundant; commercial vehicle operators licence disc is excepted, as are (which surprised me) any DartTags (or similar) electronic toll tokens. I have a 5" TV screen for my reversing camera on my truck (which I leave on all the time as a 'rear view mirror', as often some cars are so close you can't see them in your mirrors!) and even though that is a safety feature, I have to remove it to pass the MOT each year...madness!

[TWR]

I would think yes Melv, it's a distraction, a good while back you may have seen Advertising HGV Trailers in fields near the sides of Motorway, the were used to advertise shops / farm produce that sort of thing, it was found that these distracted drivers & the owners were told to remove them.

[stocksman]

TWR, yes they were told to remove the advert trailers but there are still quite a few in fields alongside the M1 in our area.

[Hopkirk]

Plenty of advertising trailers by motorways and A roads round the country even now, TWR.

[TWR]

I gather so Hop, once of a day they were all over the place.

[douglas9401]

Mirror adornments to 40 foot artic trailers in one bound. Wow.

To answer the question, it is illegal but will depend on the staying power of enforcement officers as they enter into a debate on ethnic and cultural habits brought over from the sub-continent and now used to beat us over the head.

[Bathsheba]

Yes probably, but just came on to say lol @ weecalf :)

Baths
x x x

[Quizproquo]

My car failed its MOT because I had an air freshener hanging from my rear view mirror. The examiner failed it first, removed the air freshener then passed it.