Road Traffic Law

The Series I of the 19th issue of the "Official Gazette of the Macao Special Administrative Region", published on 7th May 2007, announced Law no. 3/2007 of the Macao Special Administrative Region, "Road Traffic Law". This law will become effective on October 1 and the related content is introduced as follows. According to this law, only those people qualified to drive a motor vehicle can drive a motor vehicle on the public roads. It is compulsory for the light vehicle drivers and the front seat passengers to use properly the safety belt; unless there is stipulation on the contrary, in principle children under 12 years old are prohibited to use the front seats of the vehicle; the number of passengers of a vehicle cannot exceed its seating capacity; the violation of any of the above stipulations shall incur a fine of 300 patacas to the driver. While driving, the driver should adjust the speed according to the situation on the road, in order to stop safely where necessary, as well as to avoid any predictable obstacle; this law also prohibits parking in intersection and less than 5 meters from the intersection to roadway; moreover, in case of immobilization of a vehicle, the hazard warning signal should be on, so that other road users may realize the existence of the vehicle; the violation of any of the above stipulations shall also incur a fine of 300 patacas to the driver. The driver should obey the law when driving and shall never practise any act or activity that may affect driving security; for example, the use mobile phone is prohibited when driving (unless the hands-free function is applied); at night or when visibility is insufficient, it is prohibited the circulation of vehicles without illumination due to light problem; in case of immobilization of a vehicle owing to breakdown or accident, the driver should, as far as the situation allows, move the vehicle to the left side of the roadway; the violation of any of the above stipulations shall incur a fine of 600 patacas to the driver. In order to ensure pedestrian's safety, the light motorcycle and heavy motorcycle drivers are prohibited to circulate or push by hand these vehicles on the sidewalk or pedestrian track. Any violation shall incur a fine of 600 or 300 patacas. When driving or riding motorcycles, citizens should use qualified helmets, the safety buckle of which should be tightened, otherwise these can be regarded as not used and they shall be fined. This law also makes restrictions to the situations of transportation of passengers of the above motorcycles. It is prohibited to carry children under six years old, passengers sitting by side and passengers outside the seat; in addition, the bicycle driver, as well as the light or heavy motorcycle driver with driving qualifications less than one year, are prohibited to carry passenger. When approaching places such as hospital, school, safety crossing, etc., the driver should reduce the speed; especially when he is approaching designated pedestrian crossing, the driver should decelerate or stop, whenever necessary, to let the crossing pedestrian pass; non-allowed parking is also prohibited at the bridge, flyover or tunnel. In order to guarantee suitable compensation to the victims in the traffic accidents, this law stipulates that civil liability insurance for motor vehicle and its trailer should be purchased lawfully; circulation of vehicles not covered by insurance in the public roads shall incur a fine of 3,000 patacas. When driving, the driver should bring along document proving the coverage of insurance, otherwise a fine of 300 patacas shall be incurred. Besides the above administrative violations, this law also regulates some criminal acts, such as abandoning a victim of accident caused by the driver himself, which shall incur an imprisonment of up to three years or fine; driver who has caused an accident and intends to, by any method, avoid oneself from civil or criminal liability, shall also incur an imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 120 days. Any person, intentionally or by fault, drives a vehicle on the public roads under the influence of alcohol (with alcohol content per litre of blood equal or superior to 1.2 grams), narcotics or psychotropic substance (as long as the act of taking those substances lawfully constitutes a crime), can be condemned to an imprisonment of up to one year and prohibition to drive from one to three years. This law has also stipulated some minor offence behaviours, for example: unlicensed driving, namely driving, without the correspondent qualifications, a motor vehicle or an industrial vehicle on the public roads, shall be condemned to a fine of up to 25,000 patacas; recidivist shall be condemned to an imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 50,000 patacas. Minor offence behaviours include also driving on the public roads under the influence of alcohol; as long as the alcohol content per litre of blood of the driver is equal or superior to 0.5 grams, he is considered to be “under the influence of alcohol”; the alcoholemia per litre of blood from 0.5 gram to 0.8 gram shall incur a fine of up to 10,000.00 patacas; the alcoholemia from 0.8 gram to 1.2 gram shall incur a fine of up to 30,000.00 patacas and prohibition to drive up to six months; recidivist shall be condemned to a prohibition to drive of at least six months besides the fine. The law enforcement officer may carry out a breathe alcohol test to the driver or other people involved in a casualty accident, this test must be accepted if the condition allows. Overspeed is another kind of minor offence, when the vehicle speed exceeds by up to 30km/h or 20km/h over the limits of velocity imposed, a fine of up to 2,500 patacas shall be incurred; when the vehicle speed exceeds by more than 30km/h or 20km/h over the limits of velocity imposed, a fine of up to 10,000 patacas and a prohibition of driving up to one year shall be incurred. Recidivist shall be condemned according to the overspeed speed, the maximum penalty is a fine up to 20,000 patacas and prohibition to drive up to three years. As for the inobservance of the duty to stop, it refers to the driver who "jumps red light" or does not observe the duty to stop imposed by the compulsory stop sign at the intersection, shall incur a fine of up to 5,000 patacas; recidivist shall incur a fine increased to up to 10,000 patacas and a prohibition of driving for up to 6 months. In addition, this law also stipulates that in certain situations, the court may order the driver to retake a driving license exam or withdraw his driving license (for example the driver commits another offence subject to the suspension of license, after being condemned twice to the suspension of license within five years). This law also stipulates that, regarding the above administrative violations, the voluntary payment of the fine within 15 days from the date that the offender receives the notification of the charge, only two-third of the fine shall be paid; after the expiration of payment deadline, full payment shall be made. Any person who has not yet paid the fines for which his is responsible and are related to administrative violations of this law or other supplementary provisions, applied by decision turned to be non-pleadable, cannot, before the payment of these fines, make payment of circulation tax of the vehicle involved in the above administrative violations and of which he is the owner; obtain registration of other vehicle in his name; and renew the driving license.