Christmas is around the corner. To feel the festive atmosphere, truck drivers often install various gadgets in their cabins: lighted snowmen, flashing stars, colorful Santa Clauses. As it turns out, in Germany such car decorations are forbidden and you may be exposed to a fine.
The Internet is filled with offers of various kinds of trinkets which are supposed to make driving more pleasant, especially during Christmas, when one can’t complain about the lack of work.
However, the law in Germany is strict in this respect and prohibits lighting of this kind. According to the website Pressebox.de, it is specified in paragraph 49a of the Act on Road Traffic and the Admission of Vehicles to Traffic. Interestingly, the ban also applies to flashing and rotating LED plates and illuminated logos.
Everything that shines inside and outside the vehicle must comply with the regulations. First of all, you may not hinder the movement of other road users. In addition, flashing lights can be confused with warning signs, and this sometimes leads to dangerous situations on the road’, explains Eberhard Lang from TÜV SÜD Technical Supervision Association.
Christmas lighting is not prohibited here
In Poland, there are no special regulations on matters such as Christmas lighting in cabins. However, the driver cannot overdo such trinkets. If the lighting is too intense and affects other road users, blinding or distracting them in any other way, the police may punish the driver with a fine’, according to DCI Radoslaw Kobryś from the Traffic Office of the Police Headquarters.
‚However, I know from experience that such cases happen very rarely. In any case, a driver who works hard and spends most of his time in the cabin also has the right to make his workplace pleasant for him, for instance during the holiday season. Police officers respect this and they generally avoid punishing drivers, they only do it when there is a serious threat to security’, Kobryś sums up.