Blue Towing Lights Or Side Lights Optional

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30310, 10 December 1963, Page 16

Blue Towing Lights Or Side Lights Optional

The exemption from the regulations governing the use of a blue light when towing a trailer or caravan did not mean that trailers and caravans more than six feet wide must immediately have side lights instead of the towing vehicle showing a blue light, said the Transport Department’s district vehicle insspector in Christchurch (Mr N. G. Bell) yesterday. The correct position was that the Commissioner of Transport (Mr R. J. Polaschek) had exercised the power of granting exemption from equipment requirements in respect of blue towing lights as required when towing a trailer or caravan. The exemption applied in every case unless the trailer was more than six feet wide, when it must either be fitted with two side lights or the towing vehicle must be fitted with a blue light, he said. A vehicle could thus still tow a trailer or caravan more than six feet wide if the towing vehicle was fitted with a blue light. If the vehicle was not fitted with a blue light, then the trailer or caravan must be fitted with two s.de lights. The exemption was the first stage in the abolition of the blue light, and at some later stage the regulations would be amended prohibiting blue lights and making two side lights mandatory on trailers or caravans more than six feet wide. Persons building trailers or caravans more than six feet wide Lorn now on would be well advised to equip them

with two side lights, Mr Bell said. Information on the exemption from the regulations published on Saturday incorrectly said the blue light was no longer required, but if the trailer was six feet or more wide side lights must be fitted. The general manager of the Automobile Association (Canterbury), Mr E. S. Palliser, said yesterday that this, coming on the eve of the Christmas holidays, struck a note of consternation among caravan owners, particularly the A.A.C. Caravan Club. He had received representations from the president of the club (Mr R. Wilson) and members of his committee, and as a result the association pointed out to the Transport Department the impracticability of caravan owners complying with the previously announced requirement for side lights before the Christmas holidays. As a result the local office of the department checked the intention of the regulation with the head office in Wellington, and the matter was thus clarified. Mr Palliser said it was in October 1962 that the A.A.C. considered a suggestion by the North Island Motor Union that, in the interests of road safety, side lights should be fitted to any trailer unit where the width of the towed vehicle exceeded that of the towing vehicle. The association supported the suggestion but felt the blue light could be retained with advantage.