close
close

FMCSA allows flashing brake lights on ‘limited’ trucks

Posted on by darion

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have approved improved brake lights for a limited number of trucks amid concerns that standards should first be updated before the technology can spread across the industry.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has granted a five-year exemption to Encore Building Products, a Springdale, Arkansas-based construction materials hauler, from operating trucks equipped with an electronic module manufactured by Intellistop, Inc.

When the driver applies the brakes, the Intellistop module switches the vehicle’s rear marker, identification and brake lights from base lighting to high beam four times within two seconds, then returns the lights to steady light when the brakes are applied.

Federal regulations require that installed brake lights, both original equipment and replacement, must illuminate continuously.

However, “the agency has determined that granting the Encore exemption is likely to provide a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety achieved under the regulation,” the FMCSA said in a notice published Friday.

The approval is a victory for Intellistop, whose application for an industry exemption for its brake module was rejected by the FMCSA two years ago.

At the time, the FMCSA ruled that the Intellistop exemption was too broad to provide an equivalent level of safety without an exemption, but that exemptions for individual trucking carriers “may be more closely aligned with FMCSA’s authority.”

FMCSA’s decision to grant the exemption to the Encore is based on the limited number of trucks that will be covered by the exemption – approximately 223 – and data showing that improved Intellistop rear-end signal systems can help reduce the number of rear-end collisions.

“Initially limiting the application of this exception to a limited portion of the Encore fleet will allow for a comparison of the crash participation of Encore commercial vehicles equipped with the Intellistop device, those without the device, and the overall crash participation of commercial vehicles operated by road carriers of similar size, operations, and safety performance,” the FMCSA said.

Under the exemption, Encore also cannot install the module on more than half of its power units and half of its trailers in its first year of operation.

The latest truck crash data collected by NHTSA reveals that the rear of a truck is the second most common point of initial impact in all crashes involving large trucks (over 10,000 pounds), causing injuries (17%) and deaths (22%).

The Truck Safety Coalition, which has pushed for tougher truck equipment standards to prevent fatal crashes involving passenger cars striking trucks in the rear, supported an FMCSA waiver to allow limited field testing of the Intellistop module “to collect data and more fully determine the potential safety benefits of this promising approach,” TSC said.

Safety Standards Group: Regulations First

However, the Transportation Safety Equipment Institute (TSEI), which advocates for more stringent safety standards and regulations for trucking equipment, opposed the exemption.

“In our view, FMCSA should not take this step … without thoroughly considering safety data and research to establish standards (including those for flash patterns) to ensure consistency across all vehicles equipped with such lamps,” TSEI said in comments filed with the agency.

“While we believe FMCSA should deny Encore’s request for a waiver, we urge the agency to thoroughly examine the use of unsteady-state and pulsating lamps and, if necessary, engage in formal rulemaking to amend (federal regulations) to ensure consistency across all vehicles (or vehicle types).”

Click to read other FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher.