Road Traffic
(Removal of Vehicles) (Jersey) Order 1963
PART 1
REMOVAL OF VEHICLES FROM ROADS
1
(1) This
Article applies to a vehicle which –
(a) has
broken down, or been permitted to remain at rest, on a road in such a position
or in such condition or in such circumstances as to be likely to cause danger
or obstruction to other persons using the road;
(b) has
been permitted to remain at rest on a road in contravention of any relevant
statutory prohibition or restriction; or
(c) is on
any land under the administration of any public or parochial authority and is
not authorized to be on such land.
(2) An
authorized officer may require the owner, driver or other person in control or
in charge of any vehicle to which this Article applies to move it or cause it
to be moved, and any such requirement may include a requirement that the
vehicle shall not be moved to any such road or to any such position on a road
as may be specified.
(3) Any
person who fails to comply as soon as practicable with any requirement given
under this Article shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not
exceeding £20.
(4) For
the purpose of paragraph (1)(b), a vehicle which has broken down and has
remained at rest for any period in any position on a road shall be treated as
if it had been permitted to remain at rest in that position throughout that
period.
2
Where a
vehicle –
(a) is
a vehicle to which Article 1 applies;
(b) having
broken down on a road, appears to have been abandoned; or
(c) has
been permitted to remain at rest on a road in such a position or in such
condition or in such circumstances as to appear to have been abandoned,
an authorized officer may
remove the vehicle or arrange for it to be removed from that road or may move
it or arrange for it to be moved to another position on that or another road.
3
Any person removing or
moving a vehicle under this Order may do so by towing or driving the vehicle or
in such other manner as he or she may think necessary and may take such
measures in relation to the vehicle as he or she may think necessary to enable
him or her to remove or move it as aforesaid.
4
Where an authorized
officer removes or makes arrangements for the removal of a vehicle from a road
under this Order, he or she shall make such arrangements as may be reasonably
necessary for the custody of the vehicle.
5
Any expenses reasonably
incurred in the execution of any powers conferred by this Order shall be
recoverable as a civil debt from the owner of the vehicle.
6[1]
Without prejudice to Article 5,
where, pursuant to Article 4, a vehicle is taken into custody, custody of
it shall be retained until the owner has paid any expenses referred to in Article 5.
PART 2
DISPOSAL OF VEHICLES
ABANDONED ON ROADS
7
Any public or parochial
authority (in this Part referred to as the “authority”) may, as
respects a vehicle which has been, or could at any time be, removed from a road
by an authorized officer in pursuance of this Order, if it appears to have been
abandoned, sell or otherwise dispose of the vehicle:
Provided that the power
of disposal conferred by this Article shall not be exercisable in the case of a
vehicle unless there have been taken by the authority such of the following
steps as are applicable to the vehicle and there has elapsed a period of 6
weeks beginning with the taking of the first of those steps.
8
(1) Subject
to the provisions of Article 13, where a vehicle carries a registration
mark issued under the Motor
Vehicle Registration (Jersey) Law 1993, the authority shall
ascertain from the records of the Treasurer of the States the name and address
of the person who it appears is the owner of that vehicle and shall send a
notice to that person stating that it is the intention of the authority to sell
or otherwise dispose of the vehicle (which shall be sufficiently described in
the notice) on or after a specified date (which shall not be less than 2 weeks
from the date of the notice and in any event not earlier than 6 weeks from the
date of the first step taken by the authority under this Part) unless it is in
the meantime removed by or on behalf of that person from such place as is
specified in the said notice or from such other place as may be subsequently
notified in writing to that person.[2]
(2) Where
the authority acts under this Article the first step for the purposes of this Article
and of Article 7 shall be the sending of the notice mentioned in this Article.
9
If any person to whom a
notice is sent in accordance with Article 8 informs the authority of the
name and address of some other person who he or she alleges may be the owner of
the vehicle, a notice stating the particulars contained in the said Article 8
shall be sent to that other person and to any further person who the authority
may, in consequence of the sending of the notice to the said other person, be
led to believe may be the owner of the vehicle.
10
Subject to the provisions
of Article 13, where a vehicle does not carry a registration mark issued
under the Motor
Vehicle Registration (Jersey) Law 1993,
the first step to be taken by the authority shall be the insertion of a notice
in the Jersey Gazette seeking information as to the name and address of the person
who it is considered may be the owner of the vehicle.[3]
11
If, after the steps
prescribed by Article 8, 9 and 10 have been taken, the vehicle is not claimed,
the authority shall make such further enquiries (if any) as it considers
reasonable as to who may be the owner of the vehicle and the address of that person.
12
Where, by virtue of Articles 10
and 11, the authority is informed of the name and address of a person, who it
is considered may be the owner of the vehicle, Articles 8 and 9 as
respects the sending of notices shall apply in relation to that person at that
address as they apply in relation to the person mentioned in Article 8.
13
Nothing in the foregoing
provisions of this Part shall require the authority to take any such step as is
therein mentioned for the purpose of enquiring who is the owner of a vehicle to
which Article 7 applies, if they have found a person who satisfies it that
he or she is in fact the owner of that vehicle and it has sent him or her at his
or her address a notice containing the particulars specified in Article 8,
and the sending of the notice shall be treated as the first step for the
purposes of that Article and of Article 7.
14
On the sale of a vehicle
by the authority, the authority shall apply the proceeds of sale in or towards
the satisfaction of any costs incurred by it in connection with the disposal thereof.
15
In the event of any costs
incurred by the authority in connection with the disposal of a vehicle not
being satisfied by virtue of Article 14, the authority may recover the
costs so far as not satisfied as a civil debt from the person who was the last
owner of the vehicle before it was removed from a road either in pursuance of
this Order or after it has been disposed of by virtue of the power of disposal
conferred by Article 7, if that person was sent a notice stating the
particulars mentioned in Article 8.
16
After deducting the sum
recoverable by virtue of Article 14, the balance (if any) of the proceeds
of the sale shall be payable within a period of one year from the date of the
sale to any person to whom, but for such sale, the vehicle would have belonged
and, in so far as any such balance is not claimed within the said period, it
shall be credited to the States or applied for the benefit of the parochial
authority as the case may be.[4]
PART 3
GENERAL
17
(1) In
this Order –
“authorized officer”
means a police officer and, in relation to a vehicle which is on any land under
the administration of any public or parochial authority, includes a duly
authorized officer of that authority;
“Law” means
the Road
Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956;
“owner”, in
relation to a vehicle which is the subject of a hiring agreement or
hire-purchase agreement, means the person in possession of the vehicle under
that agreement;
“relevant statutory
prohibition or restriction” means a prohibition or restriction contained
in, or having effect under, any of the enactments mentioned in the Schedule to
this Order;
“road”
includes any land under the administration of any public or parochial
authority.
(2) References
in this Order to the removal of a vehicle from a road shall be construed as
references to the removal of that vehicle from that road to a place which is
not on that or any other road.
(3) References
in this Order to removing, moving, making arrangements for the safe custody of
or to selling or otherwise disposing of a vehicle respectively include
references to removing, moving, making arrangements for the safe custody of or
to selling or otherwise disposing of any load carried by the vehicle.
18
Where under this Order, a
notice is required to be, or may be, sent to a person, the notice shall be sent
by registered post or by the recorded delivery service.
19
This Order may be cited
as the Road Traffic (Removal of Vehicles) (Jersey) Order 1963.