Oklahoma Window Tint: 25% Light Transmission, Checked Only Roadside

Section 12-422 works by prohibition and then exception. Subsection B makes it unlawful to sell, install or operate a vehicle with any object or material applied to the windshield or the side or rear windows, and subsection C separately bars any transparent material that alters the color or reduces light transmittance. Subsection D then lists fifteen carve-outs, and aftermarket tint survives only through them. The main one, D(1), covers side or back windows whose substance or material in conjunction with the glazing has a light transmission of at least twenty-five percent (25%) and a luminous reflectance of at most twenty-five percent (25%). Oklahoma applies that single figure to every window behind the windshield, front doors included, rather than running a separate front-side number the way many states do.

The definitions in subsection A do real work. "Glass coating material" and "sunscreening devices" expressly exclude anything with a mirrored or mirror-like finish, so a chrome or mirror film fails no matter what it meters at. "Light transmission" is defined as the percentage of total light allowed to pass through a window, which means the reading is taken on the assembled window rather than on the film off the roll. "Window" is defined to include the windshield, so the windshield sits inside the prohibition and escapes it only through D(11).

D(11) allows transparent material on the topmost portion of the windshield if it does not extend downward beyond the AS-1 line or more than five (5) inches from the top, whichever is closer to the top, and if the material is not red or amber in color. Nothing in the section permits tinting the rest of the windshield.

Two age and body-type allowances follow. D(10) lets vehicles manufactured prior to 1996 year models run as low as ten percent (10%) light transmission on side windows to the rear of the driver and on back windows, but only if the vehicle carries outside mirrors on both the left and right sides that show the driver at least two hundred (200) feet of highway to the rear through each mirror. D(12) exempts all windows behind the driver's seat on a vehicle licensed as a bus under 47 O.S. Section 1-105 or as a taxicab under Section 1-174. D(13) removes vehicles not subject to registration in Oklahoma, D(14) implements of husbandry, and D(15) law enforcement vehicles owned by the state or a political subdivision.

Subsection H is the medical route. The Commissioner of Public Safety, on application from a person required for medical reasons to be shielded from the direct rays of the sun and supported by written attestation from a physician licensed under 59 O.S. Section 495, may exempt a vehicle belonging to that person or one in which the person is a habitual passenger. The statute then expressly allows any person to operate that vehicle, or to reduce the light transmitted through its side or rear windows, in accordance with the exemption, so a family member or caregiver may lawfully drive the exempted car.

Subsection G puts a duty on the shop rather than the driver: anyone who sells or installs a regulated product must certify in bold-face type, as part of the sale or installation contract, both that the product meets the reflectivity and transmittance requirements of the section and that installing it on a driver's or passenger's side window may be illegal in some states. Subsection F caps louvered materials, which when installed as designed may not cut the driver's visibility below fifty percent (50%) measured on a horizontal plane, measured from inside the rearview mirror when the louvers are used on the rear window.

A tint violation is a misdemeanor. S. 00) or imprisonment for not more than ten (10) days, rising to twenty (20) days on a second conviction within one year after the first and up to six (6) months on a third. Section 12-101(A) separately makes it a misdemeanor to drive, or for an owner to permit to be driven, a vehicle known to be equipped in violation of the equipment chapter. S. Sections 851 through 859 were repealed by Laws 2001, c. 153, Section 9, effective June 4, 2001, so a meter comes out only at a stop.

Section 12-101(H) gives a real escape route: anyone who produces proof within forty-eight (48) hours that the cited condition has been remedied is entitled to dismissal of the charge without assessment of court costs. 1 sit outside the equipment chapter entirely by Section 12-101(F).