Interpretation ID: nht91-6.46

DATE: November 1, 1991

FROM: Paul Jackson Rice -- Chief Counsel, NHTSA

TO: Ronald Van Campenhout -- US Liaison Officer, ABC Coach/Van Hool

TITLE: None

TEXT:

This responds to your letter of August 29, 1991, asking for an interpretation of Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 as it applies to a situation you recently encountered in Florida.

You state that "one of our client's coaches was stopped by a DOT-inspector and a compliance-audit with FMVSS-standards was performed." According to the DOT inspector, "the third, centrally mounted, rear stoplight needs to be illuminated, not only when the brake pedal gets activated, but also whenever the coach is parked with the engine running at high idle speed . . . ." It is your interpretation that the center light "should only come on when pressure is applied to the brake pedal."

Standard No. 108, Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment, is the Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) that applies to the center highmounted stop lamp. Standard No. 108 does not require that the center highmounted stop lamp be activated when a vehicle is parked with the engine running at idle. In fact, S5.5.4 of Standard No. 108 specifies that the center lamp shall be activated only upon application of the service brakes. Thus, your interpretation is the correct one.

There are other anomalies reported in your letter that I would like to address. First, Standard No. 108 does not require buses manufactured before September 1, 1993, to be equipped with a center highmounted stop lamp (and, after that date, only buses with a GVWR less than 10,000 pounds and less than 80 inches in overall width must be so equipped). Apparently, the inspector was not informed that the requirement for certain buses to be equipped with center highmounted stop lamps does not take effect for nearly two more years. Second, this agency has no inspectors performing compliance audits of vehicles in service. We surmise that your coach may have been inspected by either the Florida State DOT, or the U.S. DOT's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for compliance with the Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. The FHWA, which concurs in this letter, does not require in its Motor Carrier Safety Regulations or elsewhere that stop lamps on a bus be illuminated when the service brakes are not being applied, even if the vehicle is idling.