Council approves new and improved safety requirements for Raleigh parades

The Raleigh City Council has approved new and improved parade regulations that will allow the return of motorized vehicles to these events.

Over the past year and a half, staff from the Office of Special Events and the City Attorney’s Office have reviewed potential changes and worked diligently to develop new safety requirements for parades.

These new and improved requirements include:

• Parade organizers must check entries by collecting:
  • A valid driving license for the class of vehicle they wish to drive in the parade, with no significant driving offenses.
  • Evidence that the operator has been trained to safely operate the specialized platform and that the vehicle is appropriately qualified to tow the assigned platform.
  • For each motor vehicle participating in the parade, organizers must have evidence of a recent (within 30 days of the event) safety inspection of the vehicle by a qualified mechanic familiar with the type of vehicle. The inspection must include the operation of the brakes, tires, lights, horn, emissions and current vehicle registration.
• Parade organizers must conduct a risk assessment to identify the hazards that are most likely to occur or have the greatest impact on participants or spectators.
• Parade organizers must now obtain operator safety confirmation from each driver.
• The Parade organizers will ensure that each motor vehicle participating in the Parade meets the inspection points contained in the Motor Vehicle Inspection Checklist before the vehicle leaves the parking area.
• Parade organizers will hold required meetings with participants prior to the event.
• Parade organizers will be required to send the city an official list of all parade entries.

Staff conducted extensive benchmarking and reached out to other cities and organizations across the state, region and country to look at best practices. They also met with several parade organizers to obtain their comments and recommendations, as well as to hear public feedback in an online feedback form.

Our highest priority is and always has been the health, safety and well-being of our community.

The new requirements will enter into force on June 25.