Car trailer lighting - what do you need to know?
The lighting of any road vehicle is extremely important for road safety, especially at night. The lack of proper lamps and markings on your car trailer can cause accidents. That is why it is so important to take care of the necessary equipment - including the required lamps.
Trailer lighting - road traffic regulations
The required components of the car's lighting are specified in the relevant road traffic regulations. Similar regulations apply to the car trailer. In this case, the provisions of the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of December 31, 2002 on the technical conditions of vehicles and the scope of their necessary equipment apply. Chapter 3 lists the necessary lighting for the vehicle and the car unit including trailer.
Car trailer - what lamps should it have?
The basic and necessary element is own lighting, both permanent (lamps) and reflectors. It is also important that it has the appropriate approval. The selection of lamps and the appearance and number of reflectors depends on the size of the trailer itself, which is why we care about everything in our trailers, and above all about your safety!
However, regardless of the parameters and size, there are constant elements to which we can include:
- indicators,
- stop lamps,
- illuminated license plate,
- rear standing lamps,
- emergency lamps,
- rear fog lamps,
- rear triangular reflectors,
- front and side reflectors in a shape other than a triangle.
In addition to them, for larger trailers, additional lighting is required:
- a trailer wider than 1.6 m - front standing lamps;
- a trailer wider than 2.1 m - rear and front marker lamps;
- a trailer longer than 6 m (with a drawbar) - side standing lamps;
- GVW over 750 kg (registered after August 1, 2009) - reversing lamps;
- GVW over 3.5 tonnes and wider than 2.1 m - reflective contour rear;
- GVW over 3.5 tonnes and longer than 6 m (registered after October 10, 2009) - reflective side contours;
- GVW over 10 tonnes and longer than 10 m - yellow reflective plates with a red, fluorescent margin.
It is also worth mentioning that it is forbidden to install any other lighting than the mandatory one, as it may mislead other road users. However, there are also exceptions to this rule, such as: front standing lamps, side lamps and reversing lamp.
No lamps in the trailer - what is the ticket?
Failure to properly illuminate the car unit including trailer may result in a ticket and penalty points. This is because of Art. 88 of the Code of Petty Offenses and Art. 51 sec. 1 of the Road Traffic Code are breached. For the lack of the required lamps from dusk to dawn, the ticket tariff provides a fine of PLN 200 and 4 penalty points, while from dawn to dusk the penalty is PLN 100 and 2 points.
Note: The above text applies to legal standards in force in Poland.
