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This website publishes administrative rules on their effective dates, as designated by the adopting state agencies, colleges, and universities.

Chapter 4501-41 | Transparent, Nontransparent, Translucent, and Reflectorized Materials on Windows of Vehicles

 
 
 
Rule
Rule 4501-41-01 | Purpose.
 

This chapter is adopted pursuant to section 4513.241 of the Revised Code which provides that the director of public safety shall adopt rules governing the use of transparent, nontransparent, translucent, and reflectorized materials in or on motor vehicle windshields, side windows, sidewings, and rear windows that prevent a person of normal vision looking into the motor vehicle from seeing or identifying persons or objects inside the motor vehicle.

Last updated October 23, 2023 at 11:45 AM

Supplemental Information

Authorized By: R.C. 4513.241
Amplifies: R.C. 4513.241
Five Year Review Date: 9/1/2025
Prior Effective Dates: 11/17/1988
Rule 4501-41-02 | Definitions.
 

(A) "Motor vehicle" means every vehicle propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power or power collected from overhead electric trolley wires, except motorized bicycles, road rollers, traction engines, power shovels, power cranes, and other equipment used in construction work and not designed for or employed in general highway transportation, hole-digging machinery, well-drilling machinery, ditch-digging machinery, farm machinery, trailers used to transport agricultural produce or agricultural production materials between a local place of storage or supply and the farm when drawn or towed on a public road or highway at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour or less, threshing machinery, hay-baling machinery, and agricultural tractors and machinery used in the production of horticultural, floricultural, agricultural, and vegetable products.

(B) "Sunscreening material" means products or materials, including film, glazing, and perforated sunscreening, which, when applied to the windshield or windows of a motor vehicle, reduce the effects of the sun with respect to light reflectance or transmittance.

(C) "Transmittance" means the ratio of the amount of total light, expressed in percentages, which is allowed to pass through the product or material, including glazing, to the amount of total light falling on the product or material and the glazing.

(D) "Windshield" means the front exterior viewing device of a motor vehicle.

(E) "Window" means any device designed for exterior viewing from a motor vehicle, except the windshield or any roof-mounted viewing device.

(F) "Manufacturer," unless otherwise specified in this chapter, means any person who engages in the manufacturing or assembling of sunscreening products or materials or any person who fabricates, laminates, or tempers a safety glazing material, incorporating, during the manufacturing process, the capacity to reflect or reduce the transmission of light.

(G) "Chauffered limousine" means a motor vehicle that is designed to carry nine or fewer passengers and is operated for hire on an hourly basis pursuant to a prearranged contract for the transportation of passengers on public roads and highways along a route under the control of the person hiring the vehicle and not over a defined and regular route. "Prearranged contract" means an agreement, made in advance of boarding, to provide transportation from a specific location in a chauffeured limousine at a fixed rate per hour or trip. "Chauffered limousine" does not include any vehicle that is used exclusively in the business of funeral directing.

Last updated October 23, 2023 at 11:46 AM

Supplemental Information

Authorized By: R.C. 4513.241
Amplifies: R.C. 4513.241
Five Year Review Date: 9/1/2025
Prior Effective Dates: 11/17/1988
Rule 4501-41-03 | Specifications.
 

(A) No person shall operate, on any highway or other public or private property open to the public for vehicular travel or parking, lease, or rent any motor vehicle that is required to be registered in this state with any sunscreening material, or other product or material which has the effect of making the windshield or windows nontransparent or would alter the windows' color, increase its reflectivity, or reduce its light transmittance, unless the product or material satisfies one of the following exceptions:

(1) Any manufacturer's tinting or glazing of motor vehicle windows or windshields that is otherwise in compliance with or permitted by "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205" (FMVSS 205) in effect at the time of the manufacture of the motor vehicle until such standard is subsequently repealed or reduced. In "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205," (FMVSS 205) "manufacturer" means any person engaged in the manufacturing or assembling of motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment, including any person importing motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment for resale. "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205" (FMVSS), Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Part 571, can be obtained online at web site http://www.gpo.gov.

(2) . Any sunscreening material or other product or material applied to the windshield when used in conjunction with the safety glazing materials of such window, has a light transmittance of not less than seventy per cent plus or minus three per cent and is not red or yellow in color

(3) Any sunscreening material or other product or material applied to the side windows to the immediate right or left of the driver, so long as such material, when used in conjunction with the safety glazing materials of such windows, has a light transmittance of not less than fifty per cent plus or minus three per cent and is not red or yellow in color.

(4) Any sunscreening material or other product or material applied to a window not otherwise listed in paragraphs (A)(1) to (A)(3) or (A)(5) of this rule, except that outside left and right rear view mirrors are required if the sunscreening material is applied to the rear window and the sunscreening material, when used in conjunction with the safety glazing material of such window, has a light transmittance of less than fifty per cent plus or minus three per cent.

(5) Any sunscreening material or other product or material applied along the top of the windshield and that does not extend downward beyond the AS-1 line or five inches from the top of the windshield, whichever is closer to the top, is not regulated by this rule or this chapter.

(B) No person shall install in any motor vehicle any glass or other material that fails to conform to the specifications of this chapter.

(C) No used motor vehicle dealer or new motor vehicle dealer, as defined in section 4517.01 of the Revised Code, shall sell any motor vehicle that fails to conform to the specifications of this chapter.

(D) No reflectorized materials shall be permitted upon or in any front windshield, side windows, sidewings or rear window.

(E) No person shall operate on any highway or other public or private property open to the public for vehicular travel or parking, lease, or rent any motor vehicle that is required to be registered in this state that is equipped with privacy drapes, louvers, curtains or blinds unless the drapes, louvers, curtains or blinds are open and secure during vehicle operation.

(F) All motor vehicles, beginning with the 1990 model year, must be equipped with labels identifying sunscreening material. All sunscreening material must indicate the manufacturer's name and the percentage level of light transmission of the material permanently installed between the material and the surface to which the material is applied or affixed. Such label must be legible and must be placed in the lower left-hand corner of the vehicle window when viewed from the outside.

Last updated October 23, 2023 at 11:46 AM

Supplemental Information

Authorized By: R.C. 4513.241
Amplifies: R.C. 4513.241
Five Year Review Date: 9/1/2025
Rule 4501-41-04 | Manufacturer's certification.
 

(A) Each manufacturer shall certify to the department of public safety that the material the manufacturer makes or assembles complies with the luminous reflectance and light transmission specifications of this chapter when the material is used in conjunction with the safety glazing materials of motor vehicle windshields and/or windows. A sunscreening device certified under this rule is subject to testing by the department to determine compliance.

(B) Each manufacturer, as defined in paragraph (F) of rule 4501-41-02 of the Administrative Code, shall notify any purchasers of sunscreening material from them that "after market" application of sunscreening material to the windows in a vehicle determined to be requisite for driving visibility by the national highway traffic safety administration which reduces the light transmittance of the glazing to a level below seventy per cent or otherwise reduces the compliance of the glazing with "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205" (FMVSS 205), in effect at the time of the manufacture of the motor vehicle as provided in rule 4501-41-03 of the Administrative Code, may violate section 108(a)(2)(A) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 as amended and subject an installer of the material, who is not the owner of the vehicle, to federal civil penalties. "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205" (FMVSS 205), Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Part 571, can be obtained online at web site www.access.gpo.gov.

(C) As required in rule 4501-41-03 of the Administrative Code, each manufacturer shall provide a label no larger than one and one-half inches by one and one-half inches with a means for permanent and legible installation between the material and each glazing surface to which it is applied that contains the following information:

(1) Manufacturer's name;

(2) Percentage level of light transmission of the sunscreening material when used in conjunction with motor vehicle manufacturer's glazing materials.

Last updated October 23, 2023 at 11:46 AM

Supplemental Information

Authorized By: R.C. 4513.241
Amplifies: R.C. 4513.241
Five Year Review Date: 9/1/2025
Rule 4501-41-05 | Exemptions.
 

(A) The provisions of this chapter do not apply to a motor vehicle registered in this state in the name of a person, or the person's parent, legal guardian, or spouse who has an affidavit signed by a physician licensed to practice in this state under Chapter 4731. of the Revised Code, or an affidavit signed by an optometrist licensed to practice in this state under Chapter 4725. of the Revised Code, that states that the person has a physical condition that makes it necessary to equip such motor vehicle with sunscreening material which would be of a light transmittance and/or luminous reflectance in violation of this chapter. Such affidavit shall be in the possession of the person so afflicted, or the driver, at all times while in the motor vehicle.

(B) The provisions of this chapter do not apply to the windows to the rear of the driver in chauffeured limousines as defined in rule 4501-41-02 of the Administrative Code.

(C) The provisions of this chapter do not apply to the windows to the rear of the driver in those vehicles designed and used to transport corpses which include hearses and other vehicles adapted for such use.

(D) The provisions of this chapter do not apply to the manufacturer's tinting or glazing of motor vehicle windows or windshields that is otherwise in compliance with or permitted by "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205" (FMVSS 205) in effect at the time of the manufacture of the motor vehicle as provided in rule 4501-41-03 of the Administrative Code. "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205" (FMVSS 205), Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Part 571, can be obtained online at web site http://www.gpo.gov.

Last updated October 23, 2023 at 11:46 AM

Supplemental Information

Authorized By: R.C. 4513.241
Amplifies: R.C. 4513.241
Five Year Review Date: 9/1/2025
Prior Effective Dates: 4/8/2004