Road rules and safety

Animals and driving

Drive safely around animals including pets, wildlife, livestock and horses.

Animals and road safety

If you see an animal on the road (alive or dead), drive around the animal carefully.  

If you can’t drive around the animal safely, you may have to hit it, to avoid injuring yourself or others.  

You can remove a dead animal from the road if it’s safe to get out of your car. Be careful with native animals, as they may have babies in their pouches. 

Injured animals

If you’ve found an injured native animal, contact Wildlife Victoria.

If the animal is an injured pet, you should contact the owner, the police or the RSPCA, or take it to the nearest animal shelter or vet.

Driving with pets

You cannot drive a vehicle:

  • with an animal on your lap
  • while you or a passenger is leading an animal
  • while an animal is tied to the vehicle.

There are no road rules about securing animals in a vehicle while driving, but you should consider animal cruelty laws. View Animal Welfare Victoria’s 'travelling with dogs' page.   

Animals on motorcycles, bikes and electric scooters

You must not ride a motorcycle with an animal between you and the handlebars. There’s an exception for working farmers, who can ride with the animal for up to 500 metres.

You must not ride a bike or electric scooter while an animal is tied to the bike or electric scooter.

Riding animals on the road

If you ride an animal on the road (e.g. a horse), the animal is considered a vehicle.

Riders must obey the same road rules as other drivers. They must also follow these rules: 

  • If you’re under 18 years old, you must wear an approved horse riding helmet when riding a horse on a road, footpath or any road-related area.  
  • You can ride an animal on footpaths and nature strips unless specifically prohibited. You must give way to pedestrians.  
  • If you’re riding beside another rider, you can't cannot ride more than 1.5 metres apart.  
  • If you’re using a vehicle being pulled by an animal (e.g. a horse carriage) at night, you must have:  
    • two white lights visible from 200m away on the front (one on each side)  
    • two red lights visible from 200m away on the back (one on each side)  
    • red reflectors on each side of the vehicle towards the back. 

Driving near livestock  

When a stop sign is displayed at a stock crossing, you must stop before you reach the crossing if there are animals ahead. You can’t start driving again until all animals have crossed the road.

When a 'give way to stock' sign is displayed on the road, you must slow down to a speed where you can give way or stop to avoid hitting an animal.

‘Give way to stock’ signs are displayed about 300 metres before a stock crossing. They can also apply to a length of road.

If you see unattended livestock on local roads, call the police or local council. For livestock on state roads (major highways), call VicRoads on 13 11 70.  

Rules for animals and driving  

The rules for animals and driving are published in the Road Safety Road Rules 2017.

  • Part 13 – Lights and warning devices (rule 223)
  • Part 18 – Miscellaneous road rules (rules 289, 297, 3010-303, 303AA and 303A)
  • Part 22 – Additional Victorian road rules (rules 402-404)