The Ohio Senate Transportation Committee approved a SEMA Action Network (SAN) amendment to legislation (S.B. 161) that originally required headlights on motor vehicles to display a “white light” without defining the term. The SAN amendment conforms the legislation to U.S. Department of Transportation standards regarding headlamp color, which all headlamps destined for on-road use must comply. The Committee will take a final vote on the bill on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013.
We Urge You to Contact Members of the Senate Transportation Committee (Contact Info Below) to Support the Amended S.B. 161
- All headlamps are required to comply with the color requirements contained in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. It is illegal for a state to enact a law that would conflict with a federal standard.
- Under the Federal standards, it is possible to design a headlamp that can be perceived as having a blue tint but which nevertheless remains within the federal boundaries that define "white."
- The original S.B. 161 seemed to be targeting illegal high-intensity discharge (HID) conversion kits, which are already illegal under Federal law. However, the original bill could have even banned factory-installed HID headlamps which emit a blue hue.
DON’T DELAY! Please contact members of the Ohio Senate Transportation Committee by phone or e-mail to request their support for the amended version of S.B. 161
Please e-mail a copy of your letter to Steve McDonald at stevem@sema.org. Also, please forward this Alert to your fellow car enthusiasts. Urge them to join the SAN and help defend the hobby! Thank you for your assistance.
Ohio Senate Transportation Committee
To e-mail all Committee members, copy and paste the email address block below:
manning@ohiosenate.gov; patton@ohiosenate.gov; cafaro@ohiosenate.gov; balderson@ohiosenate.gov; gardner@ohiosenate.gov; gentile@ohiosenate.gov; larose@ohiosenate.gov; seitz@ohiosenate.gov; turner@ohiosenate.gov