Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Isle standards for car
tinting break U.S. lawQuestion: The Sept. 5 Star-Bulletin article on police cracking down on car tinting said: "State law allows tinting that blocks as much as 65 percent of light from passing through, with a 6 percent margin of error. No tinting is allowed on windshields. Trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles that have side-view mirrors on both sides can have darker tinting and tinting on the rear windshield." That doesn't make sense. My car has side-view mirrors on both sides. The basic problem is that you can't make eye contact with the driver when the tinting is so dark, so why are SUVs, trucks and vans allowed to have darker tinting?
Answer: Actually, under the standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there should be more light coming through the window tints.
The NHTSA requires 70 percent light transmittance, points out John Lovstedt of the state Department of Transportation's motor vehicle safety office.
When the Hawaii Legislature passed the law, in 1983, dealing with car window tinting, it set a lower requirement for light transmittance but retained the portion of the federal rule that establishes different requirements for passenger cars vs. trucks, buses and multipurpose vehicles, mainly because of cargo capacity and size, he said.
Basically, federal officials were looking at what they consider is essential for driving, he explained.
"All windows in passenger cars are considered requisite for driving visibility," he said, but not so with the bigger vehicles.
In Lovstedt's view, the state law on car tinting "is not only inappropriate, it is illogical," noting that if the state was going to ignore the 70 percent part of the rule, "why didn't they ignore everything?"
It also would appear to be in violation of the federal law, since states are not supposed to establish provisions regarding tinting or other window requirements that differ from those provided by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard.
But although Lovstedt said he personally called federal officials to point out that Hawaii has a law "that's clearly in conflict with the federal law," he said was told they had too many other things to do to be concerned about the difference.
Therefore, there is no local effort to seek a change in the state law to comply with the federal rule, he said, noting that the 65 percent standard is now so widespread.
We could not reach an NHTSB official for comment.
Lovstedt pointed out the "difficulty and complexity of providing drivers with adequate quality and quantity of visual information concerning their ever-changing driving environment."
There are differences in vehicle and equipment designs, as well as differences in driving abilities, he said, and all these make it difficult to overcome "blind spots."
The NHTSA tries to combine "theory and practice in a manner that will establish a minimum standard of safety for as many people as possible as easily as possible," Lovstedt said. "Of course, safety beyond the minimum is always welcome."
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