Feds deny exemption request for pulsing lights

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has denied a company’s request for an exemption from regulations that require lighting devices to be steady-burning.

In a notice that will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, Dec. 4, FMCSA announced its decision to deny the application from Polytech Plastic Molding, Inc.

FMCSA said it denied the request because Polytech’s USDOT number was deactivated in 2015 after the company failed to complete a biennial update.

“Any subsequent operations in interstate commerce were illegal,” the agency wrote. “FMCSA is unable to ascertain how many commercial motor vehicles operated by Polytech would have an Intellistop module installed, nor does the agency have any safety data to compare the performance of Polytech against industry averages.”

In its application – published to the Federal Register in January 2023 – Polytech requested an exemption that would allow it to equip its commercial vehicles with a module designed to “pulse the required rear clearance, identification and brake lamps from a lower-level lighting intensity to a higher-level lighting intensity four times in two seconds when the brakes are applied and then return the lights to a steady-burning state while the brakes remain engaged.”

The company said it was requesting the exemption in an attempt to reduce rear-impact crashes, citing studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that suggest the use of pulsing lamps “appears to significantly increase visibility of motor vehicles when decelerating and stopping.”

“Polytech seeks this temporary exemption because rear-end collisions are the most frequently occurring accidents on our nation’s highways, putting our drivers and our assets in jeopardy,” the company wrote in its application to FMCSA. “The cost of rear-impact crashes is significant to our bottom line.”

In February 2023, FMCSA opened a 30-day public comment period to garner feedback on the possible exemption. In total, the agency received 16 comments regarding the request, all in favor of it granting the exemption.

According to FMCSA, Polytech must be using vehicles that are not registered under a USDOT carrier number. That means Polytech either uses vehicles that are not subject to the regulations or that the company has been operating illegally for nine years, the agency wrote in the notice.

The denial comes two weeks after it renewed a five-year exemption for Groendyke Transport Inc., that allows the company to equip its trailers with pulsating brake lights in addition to steady-burning ones. Several similar exemptions are in effect. LL