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Obscure motoring law exemptions you probably didn’t know about

Image of John Simpson
Author: | Updated: 24 Feb 2016 12:50

The law is there to protect us; it’s simple. For example, you can’t drive with your feet at 124mph whilst wearing a blindfold because that would be considered driving without due care.

While we would never advocate illegal activity behind the wheel, there are exemptions. We take a look at some legislation loopholes…

Not wearing a seatbelt

seatbelt

Motorists have been required by law to wear a seatbelt since 1983 (1988 for passengers), and in a crash, you’re twice as likely to die if you don’t belt-up.

Few would dispute that seatbelts are truly lifesaving, and you could be hit with a £500 fine and three penalty points for not wearing a seatbelt when required.

However, you may be let off for not belting-up on medical grounds; for example, a broken collar bone.

A medical practitioner has to bear in mind the preventative benefits of wearing a seatbelt, before issuing a ‘Certificate of Exemption from Compulsory Seat Belt Wearing’, which, as the name suggests, gives the holder the legal choice to not “clunk-click every trip”.

Away from medical excuses, drivers can get away with not wearing a seatbelt if they are reversing or supervising a learner driver who is reversing, driving a goods delivery vehicle that is travelling no more than 50 metres between stops, or a licensed taxi driver who is ‘plying for hire’ or carrying passengers.

However, more motorists appreciate the safety benefits of seatbelts than ever before. According to the Department for Transport, driver seatbelt use has jumped from 95% to 97.9% between 2009 and 2014.

Driving with cannabis in your blood

Cannabis - PC - James St John

Police officers have been able to conduct roadside drug tests since March 2015, and anyone who tests with more than 2µg/L of cannabis in their blood can expect to be carted off to their local nick.

There are a small number of motorists however who have use cannabis for treating Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and other legitimate medicinal reasons.

Sativex is a cannabis-based mouth spray used to treat MS and can result in motorists testing positive for the drug. But as long your driving isn’t affected, you can claim a medical defence. To avoid any unnecessarily drawn-out encounters with the law, it’s worth keeping handy a letter from the DVLA, prescription receipt or letter from your MS specialist as proof.

Driving without a full licence

Renault Twizy

Under current law, under 17s can’t legally drive a car, but there are four-wheeled machines called ‘light quadricycles’ that any 16 year old with a CBT (compulsory basic training) certificate can drive.

Light quadricycles sit in the same licence group as mopeds so once you’ve obtained your CBT on a moped, you’re good to drive one of these.

They may be slow (top speed: 28mph), small (weighing under 350kg), and not particularly cool-looking, but they will fill the time before birthday number 17 comes around.

Renault offers a lower-powered Twizy (pictured) that qualifies as a light quadricycle, but not in the UK, so as you can’t actually lease any light quadricycles here, you may as well wait.

Breaking the speed limit

Ford Focus ST Police emergency vehicle

Strictly reserved for emergency vehicle drivers this one, but even then, drivers of ‘blue light’ vehicles are not exempt from dangerous driving offences.

Current law only applies to the police, fire and ambulance services and military vehicles, but changes to the Road Safety Act in 2012 now mean that certain vehicles can be considered for speed limit exemption, including bomb disposal units, mountain rescue, the coastguard, and vehicles used for transporting organs or blood.

However, as it stands, none have been granted permission to legally exceed speed limits.

Avoiding road tax

tax discs

The tax disc disappeared from our car’s windscreen in October 2014 (if you chose to remove it), but the legal requirement to cough-up cash for Vehicle Excise Duty remains unchanged and failure to pay could result in a £1,000 fine.

That’s only if you drive your car on public roads.

After obtaining a SORN for your untaxed vehicle, you can drive it on private land. Granted, it won’t be much fun driving around in circles, but for what it’s worth...

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