Interpretation ID: 18826.ztv

Mr. Gerald C. Philips
President
Fiber Light Solutions, LLC
1408 One Hancock Plaza
Gulfport, MS 39501-1980

Dear Mr. Philips:

This is in reply to your letter of September 22, 1998, to Taylor Vinson of this Office, seeking further clarification of the relationship of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment to your product, "Fat Boyz Flasherz," with respect to its installation on pick-up trucks. We have provided interpretations about this product to your company on January 31, 1997, and September 22, 1998.

We are also responding to your letter of September 30, 1998, to Larry Minor, addressed to him at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), with respect to the installation of "Fat Boyz Flasherz" on tow trucks. Mr. Minor is with the Office of Motor Carrier Research and Standards of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). That is the agency within the Department of Transportation responsible for safety regulations concerning the operation of heavy trucks and buses in interstate commerce. With respect to tow trucks, its regulations are currently applicable to commercial motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4,536 kg (10,001) pounds or more. We are unable to tell from your schematic whether the tow truck illustrated that is equipped with "Flasherz" is subject to FHWA regulations. However, FHWA allows the use of additional lighting equipment provided the additional equipment does not decrease the effectiveness of the lamps and reflectors that NHTSA requires under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108, and the FHWA has concurred in this letter to you.

In my letter of September 22, I advised your company that "the color must be red for FATBOYZ mounted on the side of the box of pickup trucks, and, on trailers, amber up to the midpoint of the trailer, and red to the rear of the midpoint." You believe that the issue is the "mid-point" question, and that "since the now required cab rear red light is beyond the mid-point from the rear of the pick-up truck, and that it can be seen from the side, that an interpretation of the regulations could permit use of Flasherz as described herein."

As we have advised before, we regard the Flasherz light rail, as previously described, as a supplementary side marker lamp. The cab-mounted center stop lamp is not required to be seen from the side of the vehicle, and therefore is not relevant to this interpretation. However, we have reconsidered the issue of supplementary side marker lamps, and we agree that yellow is the correct color for "Flasherz" when operating as a side marker lamp. European trucks are required to have a series of side marker lamps, all of which are yellow except the rearmost. Canada permits the European arrangement of yellow side marker lamps spaced not more than 3m apart without requiring one to be mounted exactly at the mid-point. It is also common practice on heavy trucks and trailers regulated by FHWA to have an array of yellow supplementary side marker lamps. All these arrangements use a single red rear side marker on each side. The original rear side red rear side marker would meet the requirements of Standard No. 108, while the "Flasherz" would be analogous to the supplementary yellow side marker lamps of heavy vehicles.

The diagrams you enclosed with your letters indicate that the Flasherz light rails mounted on the pick-up box and tow truck side flash with a yellow color to serve as supplementary turn and hazard warning signals. When the brakes are applied, the light rails illuminate a steady-burning red as a supplementary stop signal. On the pickup, when the turn signal is on and the brakes are applied, the light rail in the direction of the turn flashes yellow and red (on the tow truck it appears to flash only yellow), while the light rail on the opposite side remains a steady-burning red. The light rails are a steady-burning yellow under all other operating conditions.

Flasherz also incorporates a stop signal function. We do not view this feature as comprising a supplementary stop lamp because the light rail is located on the side, rather than the rear of the vehicle as stop lamps are required to be. This feature of Flasherz, then, is an "additional lamp" within the meaning of S5.1.3 of Standard No. 108 which is not prohibited if it does not impair the effectiveness of lighting equipment that the standard requires. Under the conditions described below, we believe that this feature is acceptable.

The operation of Flasherz as you describe it is not totally in accord with Standard No. 108's requirements, but we believe that Flasherz can be modified to conform with them. The system would be acceptable if it operates in the following manner. The system flashes one or both light rails in a yellow color to indicate, respectively, the direction of a turn or activation of the hazard warning system, a present feature of the system. When the brakes are applied, the light rails illuminate a steady-burning red, also a present feature of Flasherz. When the turn signal is on and the brakes are applied, however, the light rail in the direction of the turn must flash yellow/off (as it appears to do on the tow truck), or illuminate in a steady-burning red, but not both, while the light rail on the opposite side remains a steady-burning red. We believe that the alternately flashing yellow/red signal, unfamiliar to motorists, has the potential to impair the effectiveness of both the original equipment turn signal and stop lamps. The turn operation function also follows the convention for optically combined turn signal/stop lamps where the stop lamp function is suppressed during turn signal operation.

We have further comments regarding the diagram showing the tow truck, concerning the truck's strobe system. It is equipped with a yellow "strobe beacon;" when the strobe beacon is on, the light rails alternate between the strobe pulse and their normal steady-burning state, which we agree should be yellow. If the brake is applied when the yellow strobe beacon is activated, the light rails alternate between a strobe pulse in yellow and a red steady-burning state. We have informed you in a previous paragraph that we believe an alternatively flashing yellow/red has the potential to confuse motorists. We would advise caution in determining the number and pulse rate of strobe lights on motor vehicles, because they may trigger photic reactions in some observers, similar to epileptic seizures.

I hope that this is responsive to your concerns. If you have any questions, you may telephone Mr. Vinson at 202-366-5263.

Sincerely,
Frank Seales, Jr.
Chief Counsel
ref:108
d.12/23/98