Even with permits, it is illegal to tint windshields – Traffic Chief warns

Drivers are being warned that it is illegal to tint the windshields of their vehicles, even if they are in possession of permits.

This was made known by Traffic Chief Dennis Stephens during a recent episode of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) programme “Police and You”.

“What we find (is that) not only do persons put on the tint, we observe that persons are tinting their front windscreen; and that is very dangerous, especially at night and especially when it is raining, (because) it may have issues with the person’s sight,” he explained.

“There is a lot of misinterpretation about the tint permits in relation to what it contains…Even though persons are given a tint permit, they are allowed to put on their tint, except (on) the front windscreen,” he added.

The Traffic Chief also explained that officers often have issue with the percentage that is placed on the vehicles – even those with the requisite permits.

“Tints on vehicles cannot be so dark that the police cannot identify the occupants in the vehicle. The laws for tints indicate…that it has to be 65% visible of light penetration on the glass, and that would render it transparent, so that persons can be identified…,” he noted.

For those persons who refuse to abide by the warnings of the Police Force on tints, Stephens said, the Police have recently launched a campaign that would deal with those drivers.

Earlier this year, Police from Traffic Headquarters at Eve Leary conducted a two-hour targeted traffic campaign on Route 42 minibuses, during which several minibus operators were arrested after they were found to be in breach of Section 19 (1) of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Regulations, Chapter 51:02, which speaks to alterations of motor vehicles occasioning higher licence duty. Some of the infractions were: the addition of amplifiers, speaker boxes, stickers, visors on the back windscreens, and tint.