Q&A - Are Police Qualified to Decide on Noisy Exhausts?

Q&A ImageIs a Police officer also an inspector under the motor vehicle regulations? For noisy exhausts it is the opinion of the inspector that seems to critical in determining whether the vehicle exhaust is too noisy.

So it would be great if a police officer could issue a ticket or a notice to correct just based on their opinion, which should be just more useful than trying to do decibel testing.

We have all heard all sorts of vehicles go by that have proper mufflers and it is obvious when a vehicle is louder than it comparable vehicles with good mufflers. 

27 A motor vehicle shall be equipped with an exhaust muffler which complies with section 7.03 of the regulations.

The opinion of an inspector as to whether the engine and exhaust noise is greater than that made by other vehicles in good condition of comparable size, horsepower, piston displacement or compression ratio shall determine whether exhaust gases are expelled with excessive noise.

Yes, the courts may accept the police officer's opinion as it would that of an inspector in a Designated Inspection Facility. The term "inspector" is not defined in the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations or it's parent Motor Vehicle Act. This means that the dictionary definition of the word is acceptable.

Now we come to the difficult part, and that seems to be having the courts accept the testimony of the inspector and convicting on it. I know from past experience that this is very difficult to do. There does seem to be more success if a sound measuring device is used but they are not common tools used in traffic policing.

Rather than go through it all yet again, I will just link to all the articles on this site that have to do with vehicle exhaust noise.