Know the law
Page 54
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continued from page 51
Vehicles first used before November 1 1970 are exempt when an exhaust brake fitted to them is in operation.
Road rollers are exempt completely from the requirements of the regulation. A vehicle which is stationary, otherwise than through an enforced stoppage owing to the necessities of traffic, is exempt while the engine is being run for adjustment or where it is driving ancillary equipment. The latter proviso would cover a fire engine while it was pumping, a concrete mixer with the drum revolving or any other case where the power-take-off is being used.
Good defence It is a good defence to a charge against this regulation to prove that the excessive noise was due to some temporary or accidental cause which would not have been prevented by the exercise of due diligence and care on the part of the owner or driver. A driver, who is not the owner of the vehicle, can bring forward as a defence the fact that the noise arose through a defect in the design or construction of the vehicle or through the negligence or fault of some other person whose duty it was to keep the vehicle in a proper state of repair or adjustment or to properly pack or adjust the load. He can claim in defence that the excessive noise could not have been prevented by the exercise of reasonable diligence and care on the part of such driver.