The United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Nhtsa) and U.S. Customs have significantly increased their coöperative efforts to stop illegal car lights entering the country.
Topping the list of items flagged for Customs detainment or seizure are so-called “HID kits”, which place a Xenon burner in headlamps meant to take a tungsten-halogen bulb. NHTSA’s lighting enforcement chief Mike Cole says it’s understandable that people want to update their cars’ lighting, but “’HID kits’ endanger traffic safety; they cause headlamps to distribute the light incorrectly and produce dangerous levels of glare.”
The agency’s compliance-enforcement staff has been augmented, and U.S. Customs has a frequently-updated list of offshore companies known or suspected to make “HID kits”.
