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I just saw on Fifth Gear (a UK TV car show) that it was illegal to drive a dirty car in Belarus. A Google search revealed many other people believe this to be true.

Can anyone confirm it is true and explain why?

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  • Driving in Belarus doesn't say anything about that, although as you say it's commonly repeated around the internet.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 0:06
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    Sounds like a great question for Skeptics :-)
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 0:21
  • according to The Telegraph it's really illegal, but I still can't find official source.
    – Dirty-flow
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 8:31

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It is true, but in a very unspectacular way.

The official traffic laws state:

10. The driver is prohibited to:

...

10.3 participate in road traffic on a vehicle covered with dirt (laminations), limiting the driver's field of vision and also making indiscernible the information on the registration plate at a distance of 40 meters and less

So - yes, you can be fined (up to 300,000 Belarus Rubles, that is, up to about 30$) for having a dirty vehicle - but only if you can't see the road or the police can't see your licence plate. This is legislation the kinds of which have been seen in many a country.

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  • thanks. I would have thought that was the case in all countries.
    – cantsay
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 13:34
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    Unless I'm much mistaken, at the very least, the "making indiscernible the information on the registration plate" isn't Belarus invention. Same rules apply in USA and probably everywhere else
    – user5341
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 14:00
  • I used to work in a place where the vast majority of winter speeding violations caught by a speeding camera outside the workplace were useless, as license plates were covered in snow.
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 15:50
  • @gerrit - here's evidence for USA: one, two
    – user5341
    Commented Aug 24, 2014 at 23:14
  • @DVK I did not mean to challenge your claim. I'm pretty sure that the same rules apply in Sweden but it appears Swedish road police have other priorities during a snowstorm than to enforce this rule (yes, some people are speeding in snowstorms)
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 25, 2014 at 0:47

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