Motor Vehicles (Authorisation of Special Types) Order (Northern Ireland) 1997

Motor vehicles and trailers constructed for use outside the United Kingdom or which are new or improved types constructed for tests or trials or are equipped with new or improved equipment or types of equipment

16.—(1) This Article applies to wheeled motor vehicles and trailers not falling within any description of motor vehicle or trailer specified in Article 19, 20, 21 or 22 and references in this Article to motor vehicles and trailers shall be construed accordingly.

(2) The Department authorises the use on roads—

(a) of motor vehicles and trailers, or types of motor vehicles and trailers, constructed for use outside the United Kingdom and of new or improved types of motor vehicles and trailers constructed for tests or trails notwithstanding that such vehicles do not comply in all respects with the requirements of the Construction and Use Regulations, and

(b) of motor vehicles and trailers equipped with new or improved equipment of types of equipment notwithstanding that such vehicles do not comply in all respects with such of the requirements of the Construction and Use Regulations as cannot, by reason only of the said equipment, be complied with,

subject, in all cases, to the restrictions and conditions set out in paragraph (3).

(3) The conditions referred to in paragraph (2) are—

(a) the vehicle shall not be used otherwise than—

(i) for or in connection with the testing or demonstration of the vehicle, or

(ii) in the course of delivery on sale, or

(iii) for proceeding to or returning from a manufacturer or repairer for the purpose of construction, repair or overhaul;

(b) the vehicle shall comply with regulations 9, 14, 16(1), 18, 24, 25, 27, 28, 32, 35, 40, 53, 63, 64, 79, 81, 83, 86, 87, 89, 91 to 105 of the Construction and Use Regulations shall apply thereto;

(c) the vehicle shall not be used for the carriage of any load other than its necessary gear or equipment or such apparatus or ballast as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying out a test or trial of the vehicle;

(d) save in so far as the Chief Constable dispenses with any of the requirements contained in this sub-paragraph as to length of notice or particulars to be given, the user of the vehicle, if its overall width exceeds 2.9 metres or if its overall length exceeds that specified by any provision in regulation 6 of the Construction and Use Regulations, before using it on a road, shall give at least two clear days' notice to the Chief Constable and such notice shall contain particulars of the vehicle concerned, of its overall width and overall length, of the width and length of any load proposed to be carried, and of the time, date and route of the proposed journey;

(e) subject to any variation in the time, date or route of the journey which may be directed by the Chief Constable, the vehicle shall be used only in circumstances which accord with the particulars given in compliance with the foregoing sub-paragraph as to the time, date and route of the journey and only if the overall width and overall length of the vehicle and the width and length of any load carried thereon do not exceed the width and length of which particulars have been given as aforesaid; and

(f) in the case of the use of a vehicle in respect of which any of the Construction and Use Regulations as to the weights of vehicles, whether laden or unladen, or the weights transmitted to the road surface by all or any of the wheels is not complied with, or, where a combination of vehicles is used, if any of the said requirements as to any or all of the vehicles in the combination is not complied with—

(i) save in so far as the Department in relation to any road or the bridge authority for any bridge on which it is proposed that the vehicle or, as the case may be, the vehicles will be used dispenses, as respects the use of the vehicle or vehicles on any road or, as the case may be, on any bridge, with the requirements contained in this sub-paragraph as to length of notice or to the form of notice or the particulars to be given, the user of the vehicle or, as the case may be, of the vehicles, before using the vehicle or the vehicles on that road, or that bridge, shall give to the Department in relation to the road and to the bridge authority for the bridge at least two clear days' notice in the form and containing the particulars specified in Part I of Schedule 5, and

(ii) before using the vehicle or, as the case may be, the vehicles on any road or bridge, the user of the vehicle or vehicles shall give to the Department in relation to the road and to the bridge authority for the bridge an indemnity in the form specified in Part II of Schedule 5,

and for the purposes of this sub-paragraph references to a combination of vehicles shall be construed in the same manner as is provided in regulation 79(1)(g) of the Construction and Use Regulations.