Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

Use of audible warning instruments

114.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (1) to (6), a person shall not sound, or cause or permit to be sounded, a horn, gong, bell or siren fitted to or carried on a vehicle which is—

(a) stationary on a road, at any time, other than at times of danger due to another moving vehicle on or near the road; or

(b) in motion on a restricted road, between 23.30 hours and 07.00 hours in the following morning.

(2) Paragraph (1)(a) does not apply to the sounding of a reversing alarm when the vehicle to which it is fitted is about to move backwards and its engine is running.

(3) A person shall not sound, or cause or permit to be sounded, on a road a reversing alarm fitted to a vehicle—

(a) unless the vehicle is a goods vehicle which has a maximum gross weight not less than 2,000 kg, a bus, engineering plant, a refuse vehicle, or a works truck; or

(b) if the sound of the alarm is likely to be confused with a sound emitted in the operation of a pedestrian crossing established, or having effect as if established, under Article 59 of the Road Traffic Regulation (Northern Ireland) Order 1997(1).

(4) Subject to paragraphs (5) and (6), a person shall not sound, or cause or permit to be sounded, a gong, bell, siren or two-tone horn, fitted to or otherwise carried on a vehicle (whether it is stationary or not).

(5) Paragraphs (1) and (4) do not apply to the sounding of—

(a) an instrument or apparatus fitted to, or otherwise carried on, a vehicle at a time when the vehicle is being used for one of the purposes specified in regulation 44(5) and it is necessary or desirable to do so either to indicate to other road users the urgency of the purposes for which the vehicle is being used, or to warn other road users of the presence of the vehicle on the road; or

(b) a horn (not being a two-tone horn), bell, gong or siren—

(i) to raise alarm as to the theft or attempted theft of the vehicle or its contents; or

(ii) in the case of a bus, to summon help for the driver, the conductor or an inspector.

(6) Subject to Article 42 of the Pollution Control and Local Government (Northern Ireland) Order 1978(2) and notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (4) a person may, between 12.00 hours and 19.00 hours, sound or cause or permit to be sounded an instrument or apparatus, other than a two-tone horn, fitted to or otherwise carried on a vehicle, being an instrument or apparatus designed to emit a sound for the purpose of informing members of the public that the vehicle is conveying goods for sale, if, when the apparatus or instrument is sounded, it is sounded only for that purpose.

(7) For the purposes of their interpretation in this regulation the expressions referred to in regulation 44(10) have the meanings there given to them.

(1)

S.I. 1997/276 (N.I. 2)

(2)

S.I. 1978/1049 (N.I. 19)