From: Convoy Magazine (convoymagazine@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Sep 11 2004 - 08:23:45 PDT
IN Canada, as in the US, rules vary from province to
province.
However, GENERALLY, vehicles do not have to have stuff
they did not originally come with.
And, there are special considerations for historic
licence plated vehicles which these are.
HOWEVER, my own 1944 CMP came equipped with tiny (and
low powered) red tail light, red brake light, and
white convoy light, no turn signals, designed for war,
not traffic
In today's heavy traffic conditions and speeds, and
VERY low level of ability of most of the people on the
roads.. there is no way I'd drive a big slow vehicle
without at least the slight advantage of very visible
brake and turn lights.
These are very simple to add, and very easy to remove
if i really want to for a specific parade, or display
purpose.
As others have rightly pointed out, in today's
society, ANYTHING a little out of the ordinary
attracts a LOT of attention.
Society seems so intolerant of anything our of the
mainstream, and let's face it, we are out of the
mainstream!
A fatal accident involving an historic MV immediately
attracts unwarranted attention especially from
grand-standing poiticians and community do-gooders
(whose purpose seems to be much more personal
agrandizement than real concerns about safety)
Many may die in "regular" vehicle accidents due to any
number of correctable reasons, badly designed road,
standard driver low ability, whatever, but as these
are "mainstream" it gets little attention, one big
green accident and a hue and cry goes up that these
things are unsafe, shouldnt be in private hands yadda
yadda.
We cant win, so the best thing to do is A) always
drive conservatively in our vehicles
and B) make them as safe as reasonably possible for
the realities of today's driving conditions without
ruining the overall historical aspect
This will reduce the chances of an accident, which
even if you're totally in the right, still will cause
you some grief.
Sheer statistical numbers indicate that there has to
be a certain percentage of nincompoops in our hobby,
but by reducing the chance of accidents we reduce the
chance of uninformed people yapping for stricter
control/elimination of these heritage vehicles.
rant out.
Marc (not the south one, the north one ;-)
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