People who install illegal dark tint into car windows could find themselves before the courts after Parliament yesterday voted to take a harder line against those who flout the law.

Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said the new legislation would enable Police to come down hard on those people who actually install the tint, instead of only the car owners, as at present.

He said the law would continue to stipulate that front windscreens have no more than 70 percent tint, with rear windscreens and rear windows being allowed 30 percent tint, instead of the present 35 percent.

Front side windows will remain at 35 percent.

The Minister told Parliament that the smaller the percentage of tint the darker the glass.

Dr. Brown said for too long people who installed illegal tint were allowed to do it without fear of the law.

He said: "It's already a matter of law that if a motorist has a car where the tint exceeds a certain percent then it's illegal.

"What we have done today is to include a clause to say that for anybody who installs the tint, it will be illegal."

Dr. Brown said his Ministry had consulted widely with stakeholders on the issue, and felt it paramount that windscreens have no more than a 70 percent tint.

The Minister said the new law would enable two charges to be brought. One will be installing the tint, and the other will involve the owner of the vehicle, which is already in existence.

However, he said if the owner himself installed the tint, he would be charged twice, and both charges would be dealt with by the courts and liable to a fine.

Dr. Brown said it was a matter of road safety, and all drivers should be able to see drivers inside other vehicles.

But the United Bermuda Party's Tim Smith said while the Opposition supported laws that restricted tint, members did not believe this particular clause of the law would be enforceable.

Mr. Smith said Government should be trying to educate people about the safety issues of illegal tint, rather than introducing a law that was not enforceable.

He said: "It relates to people who install the tint, but not the owner. How is it going to be enforced?

"This will be the longest finger-pointing exercise known to man.

"The Police will have to find out who installed the tint. Surely, we have to nail them while they are doing it."

And he said it was perplexing to the Opposition that Government was going to agree an amendment to the Motor Car Act 1951 that was going to be a "tedious" exercise.

Opposition Whip Maxwell Burgess said Government should be educating people on road safety so that people did not want to install darker tint in their windows.

And Shadow Telecommunications Minister Allan Marshall asked why owners were currently being allowed to act outside of the law without facing a penalty?

He added: "I think what Government is trying to do is say we have laws on the books but we can't enforce them, so we will make another law."

However, Dr. Brown said the new law would be enforceable as the courts and the Police would attempt to find out who had installed the tint, but he said, at the end of the day, Parliament could only put the legislation in place. It was the Police who enforced it, he said.

He added: "I believe this is enforceable."

Government backbencher Dale Butler said he believed that the majority of drivers stopped by Police because of dark tint, had acted ignorant, blaming the installer for breaking the law.

This new clause, he said, would clear that up.

But he agreed that it was a matter of road safety.

"When you can see through a window you have some idea of whether the driver is being negligent - to see if they have a phone in one hand and a drink in the other," said Mr. Butler.

"With dark tint, you can't see what the person is going to do. We have to place some emphasis by making this amendment with the person who installs. This legislation should help the consumer and the installer."

Director of the Transport Control Department Kevin Monkman told The Royal Gazette that often people would remove their dark tinting from cars before they took them to TCD for inspection.

Afterwards, he said, they would replace it.

But Mr. Monkman said he hoped the legislation acted as a deterrent to tint installers who will now be held responsible.

"If a case is prosecuted we would have to gather evidence with the help of the Police Service through gathering receipts to determine who installed the tint," Mr. Monkman said.

"We certainly hope the tint installers will be co-operative and we won't have to go the route of prosecuting anyone."