Blinded or tinted windows look nice, but what is allowed and what is not allowed?
Do you want to apply a film or coating to your car windscreen? Does this reduce the amount of light that passes through? This is prohibited in the Netherlands.
If the vehicle is allowed on the road, the windscreen must have a minimum light transmission of 75%. The light transmission of the front side windows must be at least 70%.
To be clear: 100% is full light transmission.
The rear window may have a film or coating. The vehicle must have a right exterior mirror. All these rules are stated in the European Directive 92/22/EEC.
Road safety
Everyone knows them: cars that are blinded on all sides. You can hardly, if at all, see the driver. It may look cool, but from a road safety point of view, it is not smart. And not allowed.
Eye contact with other road users provides extra safety: does the driver see me, what does he want? Especially in rainy or dark weather. Or even in sunny weather. When wearing sunglasses, dark windows can lead to dangerous situations.
Fortunately, most car owners are sensible enough not to apply coatings, films or the like to their car windows.
Controls
The police check cars with dark tinted windows. For this purpose, they have a device that measures the light transmission of car windows: the tintman (see text in blue block).
When will the offender receive an official report? If:
- the light transmission of the windscreen; and/or
- the light transmission through side windows beside the driver
is less than 55%. The registration certificate can also be confiscated. The owner then has four weeks to bring the vehicle back into compliance.
Measuring light transmission
Do the police see that a car's windscreen is blinded or does not let enough light through? Or the front side windows? Then the tintman is deployed.
The tintman is a meter that determines how much light passes through a window. With it, the police can quickly and easily determine whether the light transmission of car windows is sufficient.
Windscreen and side windows
The light transmission of the windscreen and the front side windows must be at least 55%. The rear window may have a film or coating. The vehicle must have a right exterior mirror.
Measuring cells
On two sides of the window, the police place a measuring cell. These cells see each other through the window. They measure how much light the pane allows through.
It turns out that almost all car windows are already coated at the factory. As a result, the light transmission is about 75%. It is therefore unwise to apply another film. This will reduce the light transmission even more. It is then quickly lower than the permitted 55%.
The tintman is a certified measuring instrument and is specifically intended for measuring light transmission.
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