Rear Vision Mirrors

As the regulation states: 393.80 Rear-vision mirrors:(a) Every bus, truck, and truck tractor shall be equipped with two rear-vision mirrors, one at each side, firmly attached to the outside of the motor vehicle, and so located as to reflect to the driver a view of the highway to the rear, along both sides of the vehicle. All such regulated rear-vision mirrors and their replacements shall meet, as a minimum, the requirements of FMVSS No. 111 (49 CFR 571.111) in force at the time the vehicle was manufactured.(b) Exceptions. (1) Mirrors installed on a vehicle manufactured prior to January 1, 1981, may be continued in service, provided that if the mirrors are replaced they shall be replaced with mirrors meeting, as a minimum, the requirements of FMVSS No. 111 (49 CFR 571.111) in force at the time the vehicle was manufactured.(b)(2) Only one outside mirror shall be required, which shall be on the driver?s side, on trucks which are so constructed that the driver has a view to the rear by means of an interior mirror.(b)(3) In driveaway-towaway operations, the driven vehicle shall have at least one mirror furnishing a clear view to the rear.

As mentioned in Part 393.80, 383.111 and 383.113, CMV mirrors are as important to the safe operation of these large vehicles as corrective vision is to their drivers. The existence of blind spots around CMVs is a major contributing factor to many of our nation?s accidents. Rear view mirrors are also utilized by the motoring public to see if the driver has a clear view of them. In short, the adjustment of mirrors would be hard to enforce but obvious broken, dirty, missing or loose mirrors would be an obvious defect to our nation?s dedicated CMV inspectors.

Some instances of truck-tractors with sleepers and motorcoaches having damaged, dirty, loose or misadjusted rear view mirrors and still continuing to operate on our nation?s highways have been overlooked and this is a serious problem that should be included into the CVSA North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria (OOSC). In consideration of the people who have possibly lost their lives to such a small detail, please take this request into consideration with our enforcement partners, industry partners and neighbouring countries.