Before planning your family’s summer road trip and booking your car in for its pre-holiday service, you should be aware of new road laws that came into effect on 9 November.

Victorian Roads and Ports Minister Tim Pallas announced various changes to the Road Safety Rules “to improve our road network, reduce the road toll and provide important safety benefits for Victorian families”.

The changes apply to all road users including motorcyclists, cyclists, skateboarders and roller bladers.

Scooters, skateboards and roller blades are all covered in the Road Safety Rules as “Wheeled Recreational Devices” (WRDs).

WRDs must not be used on the road at night (except for crossing at an intersection) and they must not be towed or be allowed to travel so close to a vehicle as to “slipstream”. Scooter riders are required to wear an approved bicycle helmet.

Included in the Road Safety Rules there are rules that enhance road sharing with trams and cyclists as well as new rules for car drivers changing lanes on divided roads.

The new rules target mobile phone use and visual display units (including GPS and other navigational devices) in vehicles, as well as ensuring safe travel for children by requiring the use of age appropriate child restraints and booster seats.

In relation to child safety, infants under six months of age need to be restrained in an approved, properly fastened and adjusted rear facing child restraint.

Children between six months and under four years need to be similarly restrained or restrained in a forward facing child restraint with in-built harness, and children between four and seven years of age should be similarly restrained or restrained in an approved booster seat that is properly positioned and fastened.

The new rules specify where children should be seated in the car. Notably, children under four years must not travel in the front seat of a vehicle that has two or more rows of seats. Similarly, children between four and six years of age can only travel in the front seat if they are properly restrained and the other seats are all being used by children under seven.

A child under the age of eight is not allowed to be a pillion passenger on a motorbike, but can be a passenger in a side car. Similarly, animals are not permitted to travel between the rider and the handlebars of a motorbike. The new Road Safety Rules contribute to the Victorian government’s road safety strategy Arrive Alive 2008-2017 that aims to reduce serious road injuries and deaths by 30 per cent by 2017.

Visit the VicRoads website (www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/) to find out more about these new Road Safety Rules.

More information
From the LIV Bookshop, Traffic Offences and Accidents (edn 4), by Douglas Brown, $138.