Ignorance is not an excuse when it comes to obeying laws on trailers and towing, gardaí have warned.

Regulations introduced in 2016 governing agricultural vehicles are being enforced, garda inspector Eddie Golden told farmers at an IFA trailer safety demonstration in Cahir, Co Tipperary, on Monday.

“We’ve been very fair with these regulations to date but we’ve had a number of people who have come into conflict with us who haven’t conformed at all in relation to trailers, tractors and otherwise,” said Inspector Golden.

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“We are in the enforcement phase, we have been since 1 January 2016 and you will find yourself in contravention of the regulations, you will find yourself up in front of the court.”

“Ultimately we are trying to prevent farmers from coming into conflict where someone has a serious collision probably through neglect or oversight.

“It’s not oversight any more, it’s neglect – they should have known. Ignorance is not an excuse in these situations.”

Flashing beacon

The Revised Standards for Agricultural Vehicles covers four main areas: braking, lighting and visibility, weights, dimensions and coupling, and plating and speed rating.

Eamon Raleigh, PSV inspector with An Garda Síochána, told the Irish Farmers Journal that the most common issues he finds include tractor beacons not working or not turned on, parking lights and indicators not working and lighting on trailers not connected.

“If I see a tractor without a beacon flashing at a checkpoint, lights are the first thing I will be checking,” said Raleigh.

He added that he also regularly finds tyres under the legal limit of 1.6mm and secondary couplings on trailers and agricultural machinery either not present or not working in case of parking brakes seized up due to lack of use.

Both gardaí warned farmers to check the towing capacity and maximum permissible weights in their tractors and cars, as well as their trailers.

“Old trailers welded together from truck axles and girders, they were manufactured at a time when there wasn’t as much regulation in place and they did a job but now we’re in a more modern era and we have to conform with road and safety legislation”

– Inspector Eddie Golden

“The B licence allows you to pull a trailer up to 750kg. Now 750kg is only a couple of bags of coal in it [the trailer]. Once we go into a horsebox, double axle, triple axle [trailer], that’s where your EB licence comes in.”

– Inspector Eddie Golden

“We can check that your lights are working anytime of the day, not just in lighting up hours”

– Eamon Raleigh, PSV inspector

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