MMM – September 2019

Q

Can I legally carryfour people

if I only have two travel seats?

I havea four-berthmotorhomebutwithonly two seats –the

driver and cabpassenger – havingseatbelts. Can Ilegally carry

fourpeople inthe motorhome?

Wearelooking ata four-berth 2009 Auto-Trail Apache634,

which has an L-shaped lounge in the rear(side-facing bench and

forward-facing bench)withagain only the driverandpassenger

seats at the front havingseatbelts. Should these motorhomes

legally havebeen madewithfour seatbelts?

How would Istandif I drove withfourpeople in this vehicle?I

understandthe moral issue of unrestrainedpassenger inthe rear,

sowhy doesthe DVLAallow this loophole?

Dave Darque

A

Under no circumstances carry passengers in unbelted seats.

In a crash they wil l moveforward at speed, possibly cr ushing

any passengers infrontof the m andeven possibly exiting via the

windscreen. Fatalities and seriousinju ry are inevitable.

You wouldn ’t drive a vehicl e with an 80kgblock of steel

unsecured on a seatbehind your head, so why on earth would

you dothis with a humanbeing? And the argumentthat‘I’m a

safe driver and not travelling very far’ holds no water: you ha ve

no control over the driving of other motorists andcould get rear-

endedby a less-carefuldriver.

Buy a motorhome with t he appropriate number of travel seats

to berths, or take alon g a separate vehicl e.

Peter Rosenthal

Manufa ctur ers of motorhomes irstregistered from 20 October

2007 have to identify seats that are intended(designated) for

passenger travel and it seatbelts to the m. hese areoften in

the fo rm of a frontdinette layout (be it forward or rear-f acing),

while side-facing seats cannotbe designated as passenger seats

for transit. Motorhomes with more berths than travel seats are

common, as they ofer l exibil ity of sleeping for the occupants.

Shaun Martin, DVSA Policy Specia list (Vehicle Testing and

Roadworthiness) said: “DVSA’s priori ty is to help everyon e stay

safe o n Brita in’s roads. his includes passengers in vehicl es.

“h e only seats that should be occupied while this vehicl e is in

motion are the driver’s and passenger seats.

“Seats thatare lounge seats are unlikely to be classed as

passenger seats. Construction and Use R egul ations require that

passengers should be carried in a waythat t hey do n’t pose a

danger tothemselves or others.”

In simple terms,Regulation 100 of the Road Vehicl es

(Construction andUse) Regulation s 1986requir es that “the

numberof passengers carried by a vehicl e, andthe manner in

which anypassengers are carried, in or onsuch vehicl e, shall

at a ll times be such that no dan ger is caused, oris likely to be

caused to any person i n, or on the

vehicl e, or ona road.’”

DVSA interprets this as meaning

it would be an ofence to carry

passengers in l ounge seats that are

not designed fortravelling in.

he message is cle ar – never

carry passengers unless they are all

secured by a seatbelt.

Terry Acreman

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