hi viz jackets

[dave21478]

[quote] ...There are some (recent) models where the manufacturer does not recommend the driver to try to change the bulbs (usually in the headlight assembly), referring them instead to a dealer.  How do the Spanish police deal with a driver who has the spare bulbs but is unable to replace one when needed?  Anyone know?
[/quote]

 

Modern cars often have High Intensity Discharge units (HID`s) intead of traditional bulbs. These are the cars you see coming towards you with the flickery-looking lights that often look blue or purple. There are very high voltages involved in starting up these units (tens of thousands of volts), plus the units run at very high temperatures so many manufacturrs advise people not to go messing with them. They are not really regarded as a consumable item either, as they have a predicted lifespan much higher than traditiona filament bulbs.

Then there is the problem of modern cars being harder and harder to get into to change their bulbs, with some models requiring the removal of the complete headlight unit to change the bulb, or even the whole front bumper. This is hardly a road-side operation.

I have no idea what would happen in this sort of situation regarding being stopped. In UK the police can issue a Vehicle Defect form, which lists the faults. You have to repair them / get them repaired and have the repairs checked by an MOT qualified tester, who stamps the form, which you then take to the police station within seven days. I dont know if anything like this exists on the continent anywhere.

 

[Phil & Pat]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]... waving the warning triangle like mad.[/quote]

Oh, I like it.  [:D]

[Acoustic]

You will never find logic to anything of a red tape nature in Spain.  You rarely find a member of the Guardia Civil (they administer traffic) who knows the latest rules either.  This causes all sorts problems with such things as driving a Spanish registered car on a UK licence (perfectly acceptable legally but no one told them) and what you should or should not carry in your car.  I believe (but have nothing to prove it) that they insist on jackets for each passenger in Spain.  We carry two in the side pockets anyway as we have a Spanish registered car and last time we were there jackets seemed to be the flavour of the month (sometimes it's exhausts or it might be seatbelts - you never know but word spreads like wildfire so anyone there soon finds out the latest preference.  You should have seen the moped riders suddenly start wearing helmets when they had a blitz on that. Strangely it was all forgotten a few weeks later, all helmetless as normal).

An example of the sheer idiocy of their rules revolves around their version of the MOT (ITV).  Being in southern Spain earlier this year and thinking we would just pop in and get our first test certificate 6 months early (it's due at four years) we were horribly surprised.  Firstly the car failed, based on a new law introduced since we bought the car that all towbars have to have a manufacturer's certificate PLUS a fitting certificate.  All news to us, ours was fitted by the dealer before we bought the car new.  As these requirements were not in force then, we had neither piece of paper, and boy, do they love their pieces of paper!  We managed, by driving on a 150km round trip, to get the fitting certificate from the dealer but could not come up with a manufacturers certificate. So, we came back to France with a big "fail" stamped on our documentation as we needed the tow bar for a trip back to the UK.  Once there we had the bar removed, popped into northern Spain and tried to pay for a retest.  Oh no, "rules" say the retest has to be back at the same testing station.  Now where is the logic in that?  It's a complete retest, not just a check over of the offending item but we had to then go all the way back down to the southern coast.  After a fraught morning we came out with the precious two year ITV sticker.  My OH is a fluent Spanish speaker and had problems (usually the young "ladies" employed in a position of miniscule power who are so rude as to be unbelievable) so I just dread to think how the ex-pats on the Costa del Sol are now dealing with their cars failing the ITV for having a factory fitted towbar.

I know this has little to do with living in France but perhaps we can be pleased that at least the rules here are pretty constant and logical.  We're buying in France next time.  Anyone want to buy a Spanish reg car with full ITV.....?

[Théière]

[quote user="dave21478"]

[quote] ...There are some (recent) models where the manufacturer does not recommend the driver to try to change the bulbs (usually in the headlight assembly), referring them instead to a dealer.  How do the Spanish police deal with a driver who has the spare bulbs but is unable to replace one when needed?  Anyone know?
[/quote]

 

Modern cars often have High Intensity Discharge units (HID`s) intead of traditional bulbs. These are the cars you see coming towards you with the flickery-looking lights that often look blue or purple. There are very high voltages involved in starting up these units (tens of thousands of volts), plus the units run at very high temperatures so many manufacturrs advise people not to go messing with them. They are not really regarded as a consumable item either, as they have a predicted lifespan much higher than traditiona filament bulbs.

Then there is the problem of modern cars being harder and harder to get into to change their bulbs, with some models requiring the removal of the complete headlight unit to change the bulb, or even the whole front bumper. This is hardly a road-side operation.

I have no idea what would happen in this sort of situation regarding being stopped. In UK the police can issue a Vehicle Defect form, which lists the faults. You have to repair them / get them repaired and have the repairs checked by an MOT qualified tester, who stamps the form, which you then take to the police station within seven days. I dont know if anything like this exists on the continent anywhere.

[/quote]

 

Hi Dave, time and technology move on, so cars are being fitted with fluorescent lights for headlanmps. No big deal, anyone not changed a fluorescent lamp before or fitted the low engergy lamps at home? same thing and I bet you didn't even know there were tens of thousands of volts and high tempratures involved.  Of course if they called them fluorescent lights no one would be scared so they would not be able to charge inflated prices blah blah.

Cynical moi.

Anyway rant out of the way, I have been informed by the inlaws that two triangles are being made the rule and thats how the supermarkets are selling them in a pack of two with one high viz vest (orange in some yellow in others)

[PaulT]

Phil & Pat wrote - Don't forget that the hi-vis jacket/waistcoat must be carried in the passenger compartment, not the boot/trunk, and needs to have an instruction notice as well as the CE mark.
The triangle might be useful in the event of an electrical breakdown affecting the flashing lights.

We bought a jacket for our dog - must look to see if it has instructions and if so do they start 'woof woof' [:D]

Paul

[babcock]

Son hired a car here last week. No hi viz jackets or warning triangle and no spare just the kit. Whose responsability is it? Should he have eaten into his valuable Ryanair baggage allowance for the jackets and triangle?

[Sunday Driver]

As hi viz jackets and triangle are not currently required for passenger cars in France, there would be no reason for the hire companies to be supplying them yet.....

 

 

[Phil & Pat]

I thought that the requirement to carry a hi-viz jacket and a triangle came into force on July 1st, only the sanctions for not carrying them had been delayed until October 1st, but it seems that all reference to the July 1st date has disappeared from sight, so SD is quite right. 

The legislation mentions their use after an "arret d'urgence" which I would have translated as an emergency stop.  If I gently pull over to the side and stop to investigate an unusual noise, surely this is not an emergency stop, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse not to use the jacket and triangle.  Exactly what does an arret d'urgence mean to the French?

[Théière]

Just recently I have noticed a lot of football shirts are being made in high vis coloured fabric so the English holiday makes could comply without realising it.

[Sunday Driver]

"The legislation mentions their use after an "arret d'urgence" which I would have translated as an emergency stop.  If I gently pull over to the side and stop to investigate an unusual noise, surely this is not an emergency stop, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse not to use the jacket and triangle.  Exactly what does an arret d'urgence mean to the French?"

An arret d'urgence basically means an unforseen stop which doesn't permit you to comply with the rules on stopping/parking on the carriageway.  The actual velocity of the stop has no relevence.