Comment by Zak
18 days ago
One of my unfavorite random car regulations is that as of some time in this millennium, cars sold in the USA may not have required lighting on movable bodywork.
This bans new cars from having clamshell bodywork like that found on classics like the Jaguar E-type and Ford GT40. I suspect it also results in many cars having narrower truck/hatch openings than they would have if they could put mandated lights on the trunk lid or rear hatch.
It's not hard to imagine the partially legitimate reason that on occasion, someone will drive with the trunk open, but do we really need a law about it?
> It's not hard to imagine the partially legitimate reason that on occasion, someone will drive with the trunk open
No, it's a much more serious and likely reason -- people stopping on a highway at night, getting out, and opening their trunk for some reason (like a spare tire, fluids, etc)?-- then their lights (and the reflectors in the lamp housings) are pointed at the sky.
Or, movable bodywork is more prone to be misaligned during normal operation.
Headlights get out of alignment sometimes. I posit that likelihood goes up if the lights are themselves mounted on a hood/door/whatever that can also go out of alignment.
Yeah that is important for headlamps -- but for signal and marker lamps, the point is visibility.
My dad, in the 1960s, put reflective tape on the rear bumpers.
He was on the right track. I put truck trailer tape on the inside lid of the trunk, not so visible when in normal operation. All of our motorcycles, OTOH, have strips of trailer tape right down the saddlebags because safety over aesthetics.
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Some automakers have chosen to meet the standard while keeping their lights on movable panels by placing additional lights/reflectors in the bumper to meet requirements.
Your post reminded me of a video on the an imported TVR Tuscan, filmed by Doug DeMuro where he covers this too. The TVR Tuscan is one of those cars where if the rear trunk is open, you can’t see the turn signal lights. In the video it is claimed that because of that, by laws in the UK, the trunk must have a triangular exclamation point sign as a safety precaution to let other drivers know when the vehicle is immobile.
That is around the seven minute mark of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32u6KPTALxg
Every safety regulation is written in blood.
That particular blood was probably people stopped at night with the trunk open to access a spare tire or tools. And then there was more blood because sometimes those people forget to leave their lights on, or their lights don't function because the battery has died, so we got more regulation requiring ugly reflectors.
And so on.
I have a hard time following the descriptions here and imaging what is going on.
People stopped at night with the trunk open to access a spare tire or tools, ok. How did that get them killed?
It is a dark and stormy night.
You are driving on a road with only a single lane in each direction, and there is no verge or hard shoulder.
All you can see is the short area in front of you that your headlights illuminate, and they are dipped as normal so as not to dazzle oncoming drivers. You can see cars ahead of you quite easily because they have two red lamps on their rear, at their left and right extremities. You can see them even when you can't see the road between you and them. You can judge their relative speed from a long distance away.
Imagine a car has broken down. Remember they're in the same lane as you. You can see their red lamps and hazard lights, and you can judge they're not moving, well before you reach them. You slow down and go around them safely.
Imagine a second car has broken down. This car has an electrical fault and no lights, but has rear reflectors, just like roadsigns, which even your dipped headlights reflect quite well, and give you time to react. You manage to go around them safely.
Imagine a third car has broken down. The lights and reflectors are on the trunk hatch. It's opened and pointed at the sky. You're not in the sky. All you see ahead of you is blackness. The car body is only illuminated by your headlights once it's too late. You slam straight into the stopped, dark car. The person who was looking in the trunk is crushed to death.
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> Every safety regulation is written in blood.
This has become a mantra, but it's not always true. Automatic shoulder belts, for example were a terrible idea, and 5 MPH bumpers were more about repair costs than reducing injuries.
The 5mph bumper impact standard was, as you've pointed out, not a safety regulation.
Automatic shoulder belts being annoying is irrelevant. The dozen-ish explosive, expanding gas sacks in my car are kinda frightening. Both originated with a regulation requiring passive restraint systems to reduce collision injury/death.