Interpretation ID: nht76-2.33

DATE: 10/08/76

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; S. P. Wood for F. Berndt; NHTSA

TO: The Flxible Company

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letter of September 7, 1976, to Mr. Dyson, formerly of this office, requesting a confirmation that an interpretation of Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108, rendered to the Southern California Rapid Transit District on August 5, 1974, is still valid, and that it can be extended to include identification lamps as well.

In our earlier letter we advised the District that the installation of wiring by a manufacturer enabling a purchaser to connect it to normally steady-burning clearance lamps, enabling them to be flashed to signal a crime in progress, would not violate S4.6(b) which requires clearance lamps to be steady-burning, or S4.1.3 that prohibits installation of motor vehicle equipment which impairs the effectiveness of the lighting equipment required by Standard No. 108. This will confirm that that interpretation is still valid.

Your letter, however, raises two additional issues which deserve to be answered for the record. The first is whether the bus manufacturer rather than the purchaser may make the connection, and the second is whether identification lamps may also be included in the warning system. Since it is our opinion that use of the clearance lamps in an emergency mode creates an item of lighting equipment not required by Standard No. 108 and hence outside its coverage, we have concluded that the manufacturer may connect both clearance and identification lamps to the emergency circuit without any resultant nonconformances with S4.6(b) and S4.1.3.

I hope this is responsive to your request.

SINCERELY,

THE FLXIBLE COMPANY

September 7, 1976

Office of the Chief Counsel National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Attention: R. B. Dyson

Reference: FMVSS No. 108, Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment

Our Company, a manufacturer of urban transit buses, is in receipt of a recent procurement solicitation for transit vehicles from the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD), Los Angeles, California, which specifies a requirement for a "crime alarm light" system. This system incorporates appropriate circuits, silent switches, a silent electronic flasher unit and a dual filament bulb, all of which are to be used in conjunction with the clearance lamps. Activation of the switch will cause the clearance lamps to flash signalling a crime-in-progress.

We recognize that Section S4.6(b), FMVSS No. 108, permits the flashing of headlamps and side marker lamps for signalling purposes. However, the referenced Section does not stipulate that the flashing of clearance lamps (and identification lamps which are normally on the same circuit) is permitted; in fact, S4.6 (b) requires "all other lamps shall be steady-burning...".

Effective January 1, 1976, the California Vehicle Code authorized the flashing of clearance lamps as crime alarm lights. A copy of this amendment is attached for your information. Also attached is a copy of an August 5, 1974, letter from your office to the SCRTD stating that the operation of the clearance lamps as a warning lamp causes the clearance lamps to become an item of lighting equipment outside the coverage of Standard No. 108. We are assuming the same provision would apply to identification lamps.

Since your previous letter was written over two years ago and in order to assure ourselves that, as a vehicle manufacturer our product is not in violation of S4.6, FMVSS No. 108, when we comply with an operator's requirement, we request that a similar letter, addressed to the Flxible Company, indicating that the flashing of clearance lamps and/or identification lamps as a warning lamp system is not prohibited by Standard No. 108 be forwarded for retention in our Part 576, Record Retention, file. It is suggested that perhaps an amendment to FMVSS No. 108 incorporating this information is in order.

We thank you for your effort in providing the above requested letter.

R. L. Ratz

Buses: Crime Alarm Lights

25275.5. Any bus operated either by a public agency or under the authority of a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the Public Utilities Commission may be equipped with a system of crime alarm lights. The system of crime alarm lights shall consist of the installation of additional lamp sources, not exceeding 32 standard candlepower or 30 watts, in the front and rear clearance lamps required or permitted by Section 25100. Such lamps shall be approved by the department and shall be operated by a flasher unit or units that are not audible inside the bus. When actuated, both rear crime alarm lights shall flash simultaneously and both front crime alarm lights shall flash simultaneously. Crime alarm lights shall be actuated only when a crime is in progress on board the bus or has recently been committed on board the bus.

Added Ch 777. Stats. 1975. Effective January 1, 1976.