i think the only time they would notice maybe is if one of the other 2 are out. it might put him into auto cop mode........hey no third brake light either........are those tires sticking out past the fender.........no mud flaps............were are the mirrors.................please step out of the vehicle.

 

Legal or not, why would anyone NOT have a third brake light ? Stock or aftermarket, for safety it's to keep the dumb tailgaters away, but the JK will still come off better than the rice buckets out there.

Delta Waterproof Third Brake Light LED Lug Nut Kit
http://www.quadratec.com/products/16181_10X_PG.htm

Rock Hard 4x4 Parts Rear Bumper/Tire Carrier 3rd Brake Light
http://www.quadratec.com/products/12066_906.htm

 

Sorry, but the data doesn't back you up. It did initially improve safety back when they were new (ie, more rear end accidents on cars without than those with). However, after a decade people started ignoring CHMSL as well. Now, if you had a flashing one, it has been shown to get people's attention better.

 

The use of a third brake light came out of the phone company research. They were having too many rear end collosions with their service vans and decided to try a third brake light...and it reduced their accident rates. Then they standardized it across their entire service fleet, at one time Ma Bell had one of the largest private fleets in the country.

Then, they promoted the idea at safety conferences, the idea got picked up by NHTSA and the rest is history. Mind you, many of the pickups up until the mid-50's only came with a single brake/tail light, on the left.

Here, in beautiful Tennessee, I rarely see a log truck with working rear lights and the last two trailers I used from rental agencies (supplied with large, rented equipment) had no lights at all.

Howard

 

LOL.... I don't need no stinkin 3rd tail light, but I do need a 2.5" BB lift....

 

In North America since 1986, in Australia and New Zealand since 1990, and in Europe since 1998, a central brake lamp, mounted higher than the vehicle's left and right brake lamps and called a Centre High Mount Stop Lamp (CHMSL), is also required. The CHMSL (pronounced /ˈtʃɪmzəl/) is also sometimes referred to as the centre brake lamp, the third brake light, the eye-level brake lamp, the safety brake lamp, the high-level brake lamp, or the Liddy Light (for Elizabeth Dole, who as U.S. Secretary of Transportation presided over its introduction in the United States[50]). The CHMSL may produce light by means of a single central filament bulb, a row or cluster of filament bulbs or LEDs, or a strip of Neon tube.