Snow on car roof?
 

Text doing the rounds saying police are gonna issue fixed penalty notice and points for people driving with snow on the roof of their cars.

Is this actually an offence? Always a bit suspicious of these viral texts.

I've always cleared mine in the past, mostly because it annoys me, and it looks stupid.

they going to fine everycar? lol i drove past a traffic car twice today with snow on the roof no problem

It does sound like nonsense.

Apparently starting tomorrow, ?60 and 3 points. its all over twitter so must be official. and if youve got an extreme spoiler its 6 points!

i do get it tbh, well excessive snow more than an inch just take it off, on dual carriagways if lots of snow falls off bit risky for drivers behind, or stopping and it sliding onto the window, but what if it snows while your driving lol? there has to be some sort of limit

Rubbish .... :spam: :joker:

lol straight from the man of the law:D cheers dan i cleared my roof when i got home anyways lol

I don't believe it for a second...cant say I've seen it on the list on the ticket book lol....in saying that, it is careless and could cause serious dangers!

Sounds like bullshit to me...

But if twitter says so it must be true!! :p

i have heard before that your not really supposed to dive with it on

Insecure load?!?

yer thats basically it due to it blowing off at speeds and fact it unbalances your car plus extra weight for braking

ave heard this all night at the work,clear the roof anyway,cmon dan and smokey get the tallons oot need to know if this is gospel lol

Do you seriously think the police have the resources to be pulling motorists because they have snow on them when there are struggling to keep things going.

if you had enough snow on the car to unbalance it tou wouldn't be able to find the car under the snow drift.

I think this maybe true, looking around on the net, can anyone confirm this?

Sounds a little bit much, what if snow builds up on your roof whilst you are driving, are you supposed to pull over and clear the snow off your roof, which could be dangerous to yourself and other motorists.

The aa have been saying its antisocial driving on the news.. i can see it being true if you have like 8" but the first time you brake it will cut your view off so its daft to anyway. Fixed points and fines seem a bit silly though.

It is annoying when behind a large flat top roofed van, but what can you do? it's part and parcel of the weather. Some vehicles would be difficult to clear, health and safety issues just clearing the stuff! If anything the Police should target the daft buggers clearing a letterbox sized opening on the windscreen and not clearing their head and tail lights off the snow.

I got stopped when i was younger for snow on my lights.. which is fair enough lol.

Front fogs are okay due to the poor visibility.

Is this true then or just a vicious rumour?

Apparently it has been mentioned on the radio that some motorists have been stopped and fined, the AA have also reported it has happened but only those that have deemed it to be a danger to other road users. Get a broom out and brush off what you can and clear your lights!

From the Press Association just before 1pm

Seems Radio 2 and the AA have mis-reported it then. Makes you wonder sometimes.

My guess is that said snow was either blowing off causing a problem to other drivers or sliding foward across the screen obscuring vision.

None of us were there so we can't actually say exactly what happened in each case.

At the end of the day it is common sense and curtisy to clear most of it but don't panis if it isn't showroom clear.

I cant see why people drive with so much lack of vision................Clean all windows and bonnet and roof, so you can be sure of the best possible view out of windows. More than enough risk without you adding to it, by not seeing it!!!!!!!!:mbounce:

saw police pull a car this morning and he was pointing to the stupid amount of snow on roof and bonnet so they must be doing somthing

3 points and a ?60 fine for dangerous / unsuitable use of a vehicle. This relates to anything carried on or in the vehicle that is likely to cause a danger of injury. It covers carrying too many people in a car as well.

You'd obviously have to prove tge danger, a car doing 15 mph on an icy road with 5 inches of snow may not be dangerous but a car doing 70 on a gritted motorway with 3 inches might be.

You wouldn't have to prove the danger if the intent was their. Having 5 inches of snow on the roof doing 15 miles an hour on an icy road wouldn't stop you from getting a ticket if they were giving them out because you could so easily at some point join a motorway and do 70, so the intent is there.

Traffic isn't my strongest point - but - I'm fairly sure that you never need intent with traffic legislation.

Either you did it or you didn't. Either it was dangerous or it wasn't. Either you were doing 50 in a 30 or you weren't.

There is no specific offence of "Driving with snow on your roof" contrary to section - Blah de blah.

But - as has been said - it could fall within another offence as Andy says where the dangerous aspect would have to be proven.

Would this be seen as driving with intent?

http://www.uys.com/afzone/tent/images/land-rover1.jpg

I'll get me coat.....................

:rofl:

Surley that is undertent and not within tent.

My guess (as I wasn't party to the conversation I can do no more) is that the main point of concern was the snow on the bonnet.

Today I drove 40 miles of motorway there and 30 miles of A road back, before I left I cleared the 6 or more inches from the bonnet, screen, front windows and lights. I had full foward, side and rear vision (using the required 2 mirrors).
I saw several police cars while I was driving and I have no dobut they saw me.
When I got home most of the remain snow is still there including the drift that goes over the spoiler.
I have decent vision, if I hadn't cleared the bonnet I wouldn't have and I'd of expected to get tugged.

James

BTW, the main reason I didn't clear the roof is because doing so would have put more snow on the pavement or road where people and cars are struggling already.

so yet more conflicting advise, this time fro the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11901778
and do the quiz.

To be honest it does make sense to clear the snow off the roof of the car anyway. I was driving to the o2 last night and came to a set of traffic lights. The car in the next lane was pulling up next to me, and as he braked the snow and ice on his roof came tumbling down onto his windscreen, resulting in him not being able to see the car in front and pranging the car infront of him.

If that had been me he had bumped into i know i would have some choice words to call him due to the fact he couldnt be bothered to clear the snow off his roof!

As Dan said you don't need intent for traffic offences like this. You can't give them a ticket for where they might drive, you have to go on what you have at the time and whether it is likely to cause danger there and then. It would be a bit like catching someone doing 50 in a 40 but then sending them to court for doing 50 in a 30 as they may not have slowed down for the 30 limit.