Interpretation ID: 19666.ztv

Ms. Karen Coffey
Chief Counsel
Texas Automobile Dealers Association
P.O. Box 1028
Austin, Texas 78767-1028

Dear Ms. Coffey:

We are replying to your letter of February 22, 1999, with respect to the R.E.D. - Alert product. You have asked that we review this product for compliance with the Federal motor vehicle safety standards.

The R.E.D. - Alert causes the center highmounted stop lamp to flash when the service brakes are applied, for a "predetermined duration," after which the lamp becomes steady burning. You refer to a letter of July 19, 1995, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator, Dr. Ricardo Martinez, to Mr. Shih-Chiang Chen, advising that the center lamp must be steady burning. This letter also advises that, after a vehicle is sold, Federal law prohibits certain specified entities from modifying the center lamp to cause it to flash, but that the vehicle owner is not precluded from installing the sensor.

Dr. Martinez's letter correctly states the law as it applied then and as it applies now. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 Lamps, Reflective Devices and Associated Equipment (49 CFR 571.108) requires all lamps to be steady burning in use, other than turn/hazard warning signal lamps and school bus warning lamps (headlamps and front side marker lamps may be flashed automatically as signals). See S5.5.10. Installation of the R.E.D.-Alert would create a noncompliance with Standard No. 108. A dealer in new vehicles is not permitted to knowingly sell a vehicle that fails to conform with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards.

After a vehicle is sold, 49 U.S.C. 30122 prohibits a manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or repair business from making inoperative safety equipment installed in accordance with a Federal motor vehicle safety standard. Although the sale of the R.E.D. - Alert is not prohibited by Federal law, its installation on a vehicle after the vehicle's first sale would have the effect of causing the center stoplamp to operate in a manner other than designed, a "making inoperative" within the intent of the prohibition. Although 49 U.S.C. 30122 does not include a vehicle owner, safety is not served by modifications that depart from an original state of compliance, and we strongly encourage vehicle owners not to modify their vehicles so that they no longer conform to the safety standards that they originally met.

We are not conversant with Texas motor vehicle law. Texas may have a specific prohibition against flashing stop lamps that parallels S5.5.10 of Standard No 108, as a state is permitted to do by 49 U.S.C. 30103(b). To the extent that Texas law permits, or, if silent, is interpreted as permitting flashing stop lamps, we would regard that law or interpretation as impermissible under sec. 30103(b) which requires state standards to be identical to the Federal motor vehicle safety standards where both cover the same aspect of performance.

If you have any questions, you may call Taylor Vinson of this Office (202-366-5263).

Sincerely,
Frank Seales, Jr.
Chief Counsel
ref:108
d.4/1/99