(A) Generally.
(1) 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, except as herein specified:
(a) 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. In Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 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.
(b) Any motor vehicle with a strip of sunscreening applied along the top of the windshield so long as such material, when used in conjunction with the windshield, is transparent and is in compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205, or other applicable federal standards, and does not extend downward beyond the AS-1 line or five inches from the top of the windshield, whichever is closer to the top.
(c) Any motor vehicle with sunscreening material applied to the side windows near the driver and passenger in the front of the car and/or the rear windows 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 50% plus or minus 3% and is not red or yellow in color.
(2) No person shall install in any motor vehicle any glass or other material that fails to conform to the specifications of this section.
(3) No used motor vehicle dealer or new motor vehicle dealer, as defined in R.C. § 4517.01, shall sell any motor vehicle that fails to conform to the specifications of this section.
(4) No reflectorized materials shall be permitted upon or in any front windshield, side windows, sidewings or rear window.
(5) 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.
(6) 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.
(O.A.C. § 4501-41-05)
(B) Exemptions. The provisions of this section do not apply to:
(1) 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 R.C. Chapter 4731, or an affidavit signed by an optometrist licensed to practice in this state under R.C. Chapter 4725, 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 section. Such affidavit shall be in the possession of the person so afflicted, or the driver, at all times while in the motor vehicle;
(2) The windows to the rear of the driver in limousines as defined in O.A.C. Rule 4501-41-02 if the limousines are operated for hire;
(3) 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; and
(4) 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.
(O.A.C. § 4501-41-05)
(C) Definitions. As used in this section, certain terms are defined as follows:
LIMOUSINE. Any vehicle of the type generally described as a limousine, designed to transport seven or more people.
MANUFACTURER. Unless otherwise specified in this section, 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.
MOTOR VEHICLE. 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 25 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.
SUNSCREENING MATERIAL. 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.
TRANSMITTANCE. 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.
WINDOW. Any device designed for exterior viewing from a motor vehicle, except the windshield or any roof-mounted viewing device.
WINDSHIELD. The front exterior viewing device of a motor vehicle.
(O.A.C. § 4501-41-02)
Statutory reference:
Administrative regulations, see O.A.C. Chapter 4501-41