Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Denial of Petition for Rulemaking

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Based on the agency's evaluation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denies a petition for rulemaking from Mercedes-Benz to amend the Federal lighting standard to permit the use of optional use of stoplamps that would flash under higher levels of deceleration. Mercedes-Benz has not demonstrated that this manufacturer-installed option would result in reduced crashes. NHTSA is denying the petition because it would take away from NHTSA the ability to use a potentially valuable rear signal for a higher safety purpose sometime in the future. NHTSA concludes that it would require more in- depth information than provided on the safety benefit of any such change before it would initiate a rulemaking on what rear signal lamp performance changes are appropriate or necessary to reduce the incidence or rear-end crashes.