Conestoga trailer lighting violations and citations question

You folks should take a read of 393.9 of the FMCSA standards. Only required lighting is required to work.

 

This is an old wives tale. Only required lights have to work. You can have 50 burned out chicken lights and be fine.
This is specified in the regs, not just an interpretation from lack of regs.

§393.9 Lamps operable, prohibition of obstructions of lamps and reflectors. (a) All lamps required by this subpart shall be capable of being operated at all times. This paragraph shall not be construed to require that any auxiliary or additional lamp be capable of operating at all times.

 

Hrmmm, upon rereading, seems i was making the incorrect statement, i stand corrected

Previous reply:

Maybe i should have been more careful in my phrasing, i meant to make the distinction you made, but the "supposed to" was intended to be more a "best practices"

 

Not sure if this is a new rule or if in the past DOT abused or misunderstood it??

But guys were getting tickets for any lights non operational whether they were required or added lights

 

A lot of truckers had a switch that cut off all chicken lights that they flipped when going thru scales?

 

If I remember right, when CSA and PSP came out, they had written into the regulation that all installed lights must be in working order. Drivers were getting dinged for inoperable auxiliary lights, so after a while FMCSA added clarification, that only required lights must be operational. I believe it even specifically states that lights that are not required, even if installed, do not need to be operational to pass inspection.

 

393.9 was last updated August 15, 2005. I don't care enough to see what exactly was updated, but it means that exact wording is "at least" that old.