Ever wondered why you get pulled up for having a single bull light mounted in the centre of your bullbar ... or questioned about the positioning of your UHF antenna?
Both of these come down to the law relating to field of view.
Vicroads have published a information sheet regarding the field of view, which covers the definition of the field of view. We'll go into it in a lot more detail, discussing the legality of common aerials on the market today.
"The driver of a vehicle must have a full and uninterrupted view of the road and any traffic ahead and to each side of the vehicle and, by use of rear view mirrors a clear reflected view of any following or overtaking vehicle." says the Vicroads Vehicle Standards Information #29.
So basically in Victoria you can't have attachments on your vehicle that will prevent you seeing clearly out the front, side and back of your vehicle.
When you're mounting accessories on your vehicle, make sure you don't put it in your field of view.
So what is this field of view?
The Australian Design Rule No.8 describes it in hundreds of words what we've put in a picture.
The eye position in these situations is a point 760mm above the drivers seating position, measured vertically from the centre of the rearmost point of the seat cushion with the seat in the centre of it's travel.
From what we've read, the driver must have clear view from eye level, 15 degrees to the right, and 56 degrees to the left. Figure 1 shows what we mean from the top of the ute.
Figure 2 shows that the driver must be able to clearly view 10 degrees up from the horizontal eye position and to a point 11 meters in front of the vehicle from a side on view.
So in reality, this kills the idea of putting a single bull light on the top centre of your bullbar, you're going to get a fine for obstruction of vision at least (maybe a warning if you're lucky).
When attaching a GME AE47 series of antenna's (both the 2.1m and 1.2m) or any aerial that is wider than 30mm you have to follow these guidelines to avoid a fine.
- Mount your aerial as far left of the bullbar as possible
- Make sure there is no sharp edges to hurt pedestrians
- Any part of the aerial or base that is wider than 30mm should be non reflective. ie mat black
- Any part of the aerial (including the base) that is wider than 30mm should be within the field of view, as in Figures 1 & 2
- Any part of the aerial (including the base) can't obscure the headlights or indicators
The document then goes on to say that if the requirements can't be met then mount it on the boot or roof... yep that's right, put you're 2.1m white aerial on your roof... not going to happen...
In our experience, Victorian police are only concerned with the GME AE47 series aerials being mounted right in the line of vision or not as far to the left as possible. But it all comes down to the mood of the officer on the day, if you're breaking any one of those dot points above then expect a ticket.
For more information you can view the original document from Vicroads:
http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/vrpdf/rdsafe/VSI%2029.pdf
(Note: We have a concern relating to inconsistency in relation to aerials and satnavs, where the latter can be seen to be creating a bigger blockage of the field of view than an aerial mount in most circumstances)