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Legislative control on vehicle alarm systems
The Governor in Council has approved the introduction of amending legislation into the Legislative Council to control vehicle alarm systems.
The Noise Control (Amendment) Bill 1996, gazetted today (Friday), seeks to limit the sounding of vehicle alarm to no more than five minutes in order to reduce noise nuisance, especially at night time, caused by repeated and continuous false activation of these alarms.
The Bill will require the registered owner of a vehicle to ensure that the alarm system in his vehicle will not emit audible signal unless the vehicle is physically interfered with. This is to prevent false activation of alarms caused by over-sensitive settings and improper installation.
The Bill will also introduce more stringent controls on the alarm systems installed in newly registered vehicles by prohibiting automatic re-alarming after an initial activation of the system. To guard against unauthorised entry, nonetheless, further activation of audible signal by the opening of doors, bonnet, boot or tailgate of the vehicle is allowed.
This provision will not be applied to existing vehicles because most of the alarm systems currently in use would need major modifications to meet the new requirement.
The proposed legislative control will enable enforcement action be taken against noise nuisance caused by the activating of vehicle alarms. The maximum fine for these offences is $10,000. In the past two years, the Police received about 50-60 complaints a month about noise from alarms of unattended vehicles.
A spokesman for the Planning, Environment and Lands Branch said, "The proposed controls will have no significant financial implication on existing vehicle owners and only alarms which are prone to false activation would need to be checked.
"Most of the modification procedures to readjust the sensitivity settings are simple and cost very little to vehicle owners.
The control of alarm systems installed in premises will also be transferred from the Summary Offences Ordinance to the Noise Control Ordinance to consolidate noise control provisions on all intruder alarm systems.