Interpretation ID: nht69-1.46

DATE: 09/10/69

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; C. A. Baker; NHTSA

TO: Blue Bird Body Company

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: Thank you for your letter of August 8, 1969, concerning the operation of red warning lamps on school buses.

Paragraph S3.1.3.2 (b)(2) of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 appears to require that the red warning lamps be e-nergized when a school bus door is opened for any purpose. However the intent of the standard is that the red warning lamps be energized only when the bus entrance door is open for the admission or discharge of passengers (i.e. that the red lamps be activated automatically only after manual energization of the amber lamps), and many manufacturers have, in our view, correctly go interpreted S3.1.3.2 (b)(2).