You can hardly imagine it, but 30 years ago a third brake light was still an illegal ‘gadget’ that some people mainly screwed into their cars for decoration. We went into it extensively in Techzle 17 of 1991.
The third brake light is now an indispensable part of the street scene. The advantages are well known: it provides extra visibility of a braking action in, for example, bad weather conditions or for traffic that is still driving a few cars behind the brakes. A great addition to make traffic safer, you would say. Yet in 1991 the government thought quite differently about this.
At the time, the third brake light was on the rise in the Netherlands, but not via official roads. As we read in Techzle 17 of that year, you could, for example, buy a separate third brake light at a car parts store and connect it yourself. The main reason for doing that was simply that people thought it looked cool. It was a phenomenon that had come over from the US and was already quite widely represented in Europe 30 years ago. More luxurious cars that were sold here in the Netherlands sometimes already had a third brake light, but that was not allowed to burn at the factory when braking. After all, it was not yet allowed here. An importer told us at the time that the lights were therefore only removed when a car was prepared for delivery.
Government vs. researchers
But why this Dutch aversion? Well, the government at that time simply saw it mainly ‘confusion’ and ‘blindness’. The article in question describes it beautifully: “. Especially in the evenings when braking, the entire car was enveloped in a bright red glow inside, which would make the driver’s face in any Red Light District, and on top of that, it was risk of dazzling clearly present. ” In 1982, therefore, the Supreme Court ruled that such lights were not allowed in the Netherlands, in response to the fact that they were already increasingly appearing in cars at that time.
Barely ten years later, it was still not allowed, although the government was increasingly in a corner with this decision. In the meantime, countless studies had already been carried out, which showed that it would really add value to road safety. Herman Kruysse researched this on behalf of the University of Leiden. He presented some advantages to us. Not only did the third brake light improve the visibility of braking at a greater distance, it also prevented confusion with the rear lights on. After all, the third brake light, often resting on the parcel shelf or attached to the roof, at the top of the rear window, only burned when the brake pedal was pressed. It also turned out that the response to a braking action was shortened if it was found in a car with a third brake light.
Allowed and mandatory
In the article from exactly 30 years ago, the surprise at the ban on the third brake light was clear. However, there was a possible change in the air, because the government would re-examine the extra brake light on the recommendation of the Central Police Traffic Commission. Ultimately it led to a change in 1993. In June of that year, the bullet went through the church: the ban was immediately lifted and from 1996 the third brake light would even become European mandatory.
The latter was later expressed slightly differently in the Netherlands, here a third brake light is mandatory if the vehicle was taken into use after September 30, 2001. Also for commercial vehicles taken into use after December 31, 2012 and a permitted maximum mass of up to 3,500 kilograms the presence of a third brake light is mandatory.