The legal void about him use of intercoms causes there to be many doubts about it since the General Traffic Regulations neither prohibit nor authorize them.
Intercoms are electronic devices that allow us to communicate with our passenger or other motorists, or to receive calls. All this, depending on the model and brand. These systems are very useful, especially for traveling by motorcycle or moving around on a day-to-day basis.
Now, can I be fined for carrying a motorcycle intercom? The law is ambiguous and leaves it up to the agent whether the intercom should be considered a headset or not. The Law only expressly details two legal uses of communication systems of this style for driving schools and police, although the DGT has been promising their prompt legalization for years.
The Law on Traffic, Circulation of Motor Vehicles and Road Safety tells us: «It is forbidden to drive using any type of audio helmet or earphone connected to sound receivers or reproducers or other devices that reduce permanent attention to driving, except during tests […]».
This lack of specificity leads to cases of fines, where traffic officers have considered that the intercom is illegal, interpreting that it is a headset, when it is not, and that it prevents perceiving sounds from outside.
Fortunately, justice has once again agreed with the motorcyclist. The penalties for wearing an intercom in the motorcycle helmet can be appealed and usually rule in favor of the user according to the legal advice specialized in motorcycles Legal Moto.
The reason is that the intercoms act as speakers and not as headphones. Being integrated into the helmet itself they work like the speakers in a car, since they do not limit or reduce the hearing from the outside. In the market we can also find models that use voice commands so that the rider does not touch any button. So yes, you can appeal the sanction and get it annulled.
Experts in favor of the use as an active safety element
Miguel Durán is a professional driver and director of the Buffos School for safe driving. Durán is the forerunner in Spain of road driving courses, a model imported from other neighboring countries that have managed to drastically reduce the accident rate of motorcyclists on the road.
Since its opening in 2007, Buffos School has trained more than 5,000 students in Spain and has firmly established itself as the leading school in the country for road safety and saving lives, a task to which the use of intercoms from Cardo Systems contributed. in their formations.
He himself uses this type of device to give his courses, and through these intercoms increase the safety of the students. Maintaining close communication allows you to warn of dangers and prevent possible eventualities on the road: “The intercom is a tool to help defend ourselves on the road.”
“For us, road safety is the most important thing,” continues Durán, “as you drive, you come across many things: oil, animals and traffic accidents, to name just a few. When traveling with a communication unit, the first to see it can communicate it, giving everyone more time to prepare and react in advance ».
The law prohibits the use while driving mobile phone devices, browsers or any other means or communication system, except when communication takes place without using hands or wearing helmets, headphones or similar instruments. Something very interesting that Cardo’s Packtalk intercoms allow.
What to do if I get a fine
This new estimate judgment has annulled, due to lack of evidence, the sanction imposed on a motorcyclist who was driving with a bluetooth device in his helmet. According to Legal Moto experts, the General Traffic Regulations (RGC) is frankly ambiguous and the possibilities of appealing the fine with guarantees are high.
The first thing to successfully appeal the sanction is to have experts specialized in the subject. There are other claims that have not been successful because the intercom was not approved, the motorist was tampering with it, or the appeal itself was not well founded.
We must show that the intercom is not a headset or the like, but rather it is a loudspeaker. And that also, that intercom can be used without manipulating with the hands, that works by commands through voice.
If it is a case similar to the one mentioned above, we must insist on the lack of evidence: the fine does not specify the intercom model, the type of device, whether it is approved, whether it was on or off …
While waiting for the long-awaited reform by the DGT, the ruling of this sentence, which considers the appeal that was filed against the fine for the use of the intercom, manages to demonstrate that we are not facing a headset, that the fine is incomplete and that we can avoid, therefore, the corresponding sanction.
