Once upon a time ... the central brake light
07/07/2023
The first people are probably already wondering. Surely brake lights mounted in the middle of the rear of the car still exist? Isn't that even a relatively new thing? That's right - as long as it's a third light in addition to the two on the outside of the vehicle. This only became a legal requirement in the USA in 1986 and in the EU in 1998, and remains so to this day.
The situation is different, however, if the central red light is the only one that warns following traffic of severe deceleration. Like the 1941 Plymouth Special De Luxe shown here, most cars before the Second World War only had a single brake light. The Volkswagen even continued to flash in the middle above the license plate during negative acceleration until the end of 1952.
This worked until the filament burnt out and the unwarned driver behind would crash into the rear at undiminished speed during the next braking maneuver. So safety was increased by doubling the number of brake lights. This also saved material because they could now simply be integrated into the tail light housing.
But even the two at the outer ends of the vehicle did not eliminate the danger of misinformation. If one of the two brake bulbs was broken, the one-sided signal could initially be mistaken for a direction indicator - at least in countries where the same color is used for flashing and braking. And so, after a break of over 30 years, the central brake light that was thought to be dead returned.
