Interpretation ID: nht72-2.14

DATE: 10/30/72

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; L. R. Schneider; NHTSA

TO: Peterson Manufacturing Company

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in reply to your letters of September 1, 1972 and September 27, 1972, calling our attention to contradictory provisions of 49 CFR @ 571.108, Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108, and 49 CFR @ 393.22, a regulation of the Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety.

We confirm your interpretation that the Motor Carrier Safety Regulations prohibit the inclusion of a clearance lamp in the same shell or housing as a taillamp or identification lamp, while Paragraph S4.4.1 of Standard No. 108 allows use of the same shell or housing as long as the clearance lamp is not optically combined with a taillamp or identification lamp. Although identical regulations are preferable from a manufacturer's standpoint, section 103(g) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (15 USC 1381 et seq.) allows the Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety to promulgate or maintain "a safety regulation which imposes a higher standard of performance [than the safety standards] subsequent to . . . manufacture." The Bureau views its regulation as establishing a higher standard of performance since, in its opinion, separate housings lessen the likelihood that, at a distance, marking and signaling functions will be confused. If you feel that 49 CFR @ 393.22 should be amended to be identical with Paragraph S4.4.1 of Standard No. 108, you should so petition the Bureau.

We also confirm that, if the rear identification lamps are located at the extreme height of the vehicle, Paragraph S4.3.1.5 of Standard No. 108 would allow clearance lamps, whether separate or in the same housing as other lamps, to be located at a height less than "as close as practicable to the top of the vehicle."