(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205 (FMVSS 205) in effect at the time of the manufacture of the motor vehicle until such standard is subsequently repealed or reduced.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), 49 C.F.R. Part 571, can be obtained online at web site www.access.gpo.gov/nara;
(2) Any sunscreening material or other product or material applied to the windshield when used in conjunction with the safety glazing materials of the window, has a light transmittance of not less than 70% plus or minus 3% 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 the driver, so long as the 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.
(4) Any sunscreening material or other product or material applied to a window not otherwise listed in divisions (a)(1) through (a)(3) or (a)(5) of this section, 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 the window, has a light transmittance of less than 50% plus or minus 3%; or
(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 section.
(b) No person shall install in any motor vehicle any glass or other material that fails to conform to the specifications of this section.
(c) 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 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. The 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. 4501-41-03)
(g) Exemptions.
(1) The provisions of this section 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 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 chapter. The affidavit shall be in the possession of the person so afflicted, or the driver, at all times while in the motor vehicle.
(2) The provisions of this section do not apply to the windows to the rear of the driver in chauffeured limousines as defined in division (h).
(3) The provisions of this section 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 the use.
(4) The provisions of this section 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 divisions (a) through (f). Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Number 205 (FMVSS 205), 49 C.F.R. Part 571, can be obtained online at web site www.access.gpo.gov/nara.
(O.A.C. 4501-41-05)
(h) Definitions. As used in this section, certain terms are defined as follows:
(1) CHAUFFEURED LIMOUSINE. 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. CHAUFFEURED LIMOUSINE does not include any vehicle that is used exclusively in the business of funeral directing.
(2) 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.
(3) 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.
(4) 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.
(5) 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.
(6) WINDOW. Any device designed for exterior viewing from a motor vehicle, except the windshield or any roof-mounted viewing device.
(7) WINDSHIELD. The front exterior viewing device of a motor vehicle.
(O.A.C. 4501-41-02)