It is not uncommon to see air fresheners hanging from the rear-view mirror in cars, or other items like religious iconography, and masks were quite common during the height of the pandemic, but is there a fine for doing this?
The answer is not quite that straight forward. Firstly, there is no specific fine for carrying an air freshener hanging from the car’s rear-view mirror, in the same way that there is no specific law that mentions flip-flops. It is not a specific offence in either event, but, despite that, both actions can indeed lead to a fine.
We are not going to enter into a discussion about flip-flops, we have done that before, and you should not drive wearing them. We are going to talk about air fresheners in more detail this time.
Although the law does not mention air fresheners directly, it does mention that you must maintain good visibility at all times. Therefore, if the air freshener that we hang from the rear-view mirror is very large and impedes visibility, the Traffic agents can penalise us based on what Article 19 of the General Traffic Regulations (RGC) says, which refers to visibility in the vehicle.
According to article 19, in its section 1: « The glazed surface of the vehicle must allow, in any case, the clear visibility of the driver on the entire road on which it circulates, without interference from sheets or adhesives. It will only be allowed to circulate with adhesive sheets or blinds against the sun on the rear windows when the vehicle has two exterior rear-view mirrors that meet the necessary technical specifications. However, the use of adhesive sheets on vehicles will be allowed under the conditions established in the vehicle regulations. The placement of the emblems provided for in the transport legislation or in other provisions must be carried out in such a way that they do not impede the correct vision of the driver.
Therefore, if a Traffic officer believes that the air freshener you carry in the rear-view mirror of your car occupies a large part of your field of vision and prevents you from correctly seeing the road, they can fine you 200 euro. This same sanction, applying the aforementioned article 19, can be applied if you have an object in the car that blocks your visibility of the road or, as the Law indicates, a sticker, blind, etc. making it difficult for you to see.
Another problem is that the air freshener can serve as a distraction as it moves. If a road traffic incident occurs, both your ability to see and whether you were distracted, could be brought into question.
