Police with no means to check tinted glass

Traffic police and wardens do not have equipment to gauge whether a vehicle's tinted windows are legal or not and instead have to make a visual assessment.

The Motor Vehicle Regulations prohibit tinted windscreens and tinted front windows altogether and stipulate that, rear windows have to allow at least 30 per cent of light through.

Between 2005 and last year, the police and wardens issued just over 8,500 fines to motorists for driving their vehicle "with alterations (tinted glass) without the necessary permit of the Commissioner of Police or the Malta Transport Authority".

Figures for this year are not available for wardens but the police have so far this year proceeded against nearly 900 car owners because of tinted windows.

A spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Local Government confirmed that wardens, who fall under its responsibility, did not have access to apparatus that measured the amount of light that could go through tinted car windows. "Wardens take action when they absolutely cannot see through the rear windows; when they look into the car and see absolutely nothing," the spokesman said.

He added that access to proper equipment was being discussed as part of the overhaul of the Local Enforcement System. "A revision of the system is under way. A proposal to equip local wardens so they would be in a better position to enforce this and other regulations is being discussed," the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the traffic police also confirmed they did not have access to any equipment with which to gauge how dark the tinted windows were. "Traffic police simply rely on the visual test: how dark the windows look from the outside. We have no equipment to gauge percentages listed on the Motor Vehicles Regulations. If we see that the windows are tinted because of a film, we usually give drivers 24 hours to remove them before taking further action which, in this case, is court action," the spokesman said.

In recent years, Malta's roads have been inundated with second-hand cars imported from the UK and Japan. Most of these come with factory-fitted darkened rear windows. These tinted windows look darker from the outside than from the inside, giving the false impression that visibility is significantly hampered. However, even the drivers of these vehicles are being stopped, despite having been through the Malta Transport inspection on arrival and prior to their registration.