NHTSA delays lighting regulation
Nov 12, 2009 3:50 PM
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has delayed the effective date of its revised version of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, the regulation affecting lights and reflective devices required on motor vehicles.
In particular, manufacturers of trailers less than 80 inches wide will benefit from the delay. That’s because the revisions to FMVSS 108 would have had the effect of requiring separate compliance tests for trailers less than 80 inches wide.
The revisions to FMVSS 108 were scheduled to take effect December 1. An announcement in the November 12 Federal Register says that NHTSA is delaying the effective date until December 1, 2012.
“Under-80" trailer lights must, under this interpretation, satisfy the separate lighting requirements in FMVSS 108 for installation on under-80" trailers,” says Pam O’Toole, executive director of the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers. “While not as much of a problem for incandescent lights, it is a potentially large problem for LED lamps. LEDs, when installed as turn and stop lamps on trailers under-80", currently may not meet the new light-intensity requirements that NHTSA has added to FMVSS 108.”
When NHTSA announced its plans for revising the lighting standard, multiple companies and trade associations filed a total of 14 petitions for reconsideration.
One of the issues that the revisions raised was the ability of LED lights to comply with FMVSS 108. Clint Lancaster, NATM’s technical director, expects NHTSA to include a test standard for LED lights when the final changes are implemented.
According to the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, the proposed changes would have affected nearly 500 different lighting products.
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
