Got a "Fixit" ticket from the Texas Dept of Public Safety on the Tollroad for tinted front windshield - what to do?

Posted by Wonderful-Run-1408@reddit | askdfw | View on Reddit | 24 comments

Last week my spouse was driving from downtown Dallas to Plano to meet a friend for dinner. A state police (I assume) was following him for a couple miles and then pulled him over. Gave him a Fixit ticket for the windshield being tinted.

It says he needs to appear before the Hon Adam Swartz on our before Nov 15.

The windshield is tinted (our car place where we got it tinted said he's never known of any of his customers to get pulled over for having a tinted window). He said ours is a 70%.

Any recommendations on what to do? The car is a Tesla Model X (so big windshield).

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scottwax@reddit

70% is considered clear tint and 100% legal in Texas. As long as you can get something that shows you have 70% they should dismiss the ticket.

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vi0cs@reddit

Nothing below the as 1 ljne

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scottwax@reddit

70% is considered clear, you can do the entire windshield with it. Anything darker is illegal.

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vi0cs@reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowTint/s/GtRnBhGGmL

No no it’s not in texas

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scottwax@reddit

Sorry, you're wrong

Windshield Tint Limitations The Lone Star State requires windshield glass to allow at least 70% of outdoor light to enter vehicles. A tinted windshield must also have a luminous reflectance level that doesn’t exceed 25 percent. This number indicates the amount of light reflected by a window. Texas has banned red, amber and blue tints.

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drewforty@reddit

Brother you are making up the “70% is considered clear” bit. The link you posted doesn’t even say that. I have it on every windshield but I’ve seen others failed at inspection time for it too.

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scottwax@reddit

Not making anything up. 70% is considered clear tint in Texas. Anything darker would require a prescription.

So 70% could be illegal if it reflects too much. But good tint shops have films that aren't reflective. It's the cheap stuff that causes problems..

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drewforty@reddit

Can you link to any official statement referencing 70%? The only quote from DPS is about “clear, un-tinted UV” film. For the record I would like for this to be true as 70% IR tint is a lifesaver and practically imperceptible.

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iDontUnitTest1@reddit

Of ALL THE THINGS you see on the road in DFW, he picked you out for tints 🤦

What a joke of a trooper

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11iron@reddit

Did the trooper measure the light output? 70% is the limit on windshield

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Wonderful-Run-1408@reddit (OP)

No he apparently eye-balled it. And said since tint is below the AS1 line.. it's illegal. I don't even know what that is.

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PocoLoco7@reddit

Look carefully at the windshield from the outside towards the top right and left corners, moving down. You'll see it

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Katy_moxie@reddit

Even without the AS1 line, which marks where the tint line should end for visibility, the max it can cover is 5 inches from the top of the wind shield. If it covers the whole window, you should take it back and get it fixed.

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12_yo_d@reddit

Not correct, if it’s clear (which 70% is considered clear) it’s legal.

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thejohncarlson@reddit

Most traffic courts are pretty informal. If you get something from the shop saying what the tint is (a receipt would be nice) and a print out of the statute that says it is legal and go to court you have a good chance of winning. I am 2 for 2 in my life fighting tickets without a lawyer.

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SaltyMatzoh@reddit

There’s actual criminals out there and they’re on this penny ante?

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12_yo_d@reddit

The 70% stuff should fall under the clear UV tint. Sounds like you had an uneducated officer ticket you for something you should not have got a ticket for. Did they meter the tint?

I would lawyer up and fight that one.

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Wonderful-Run-1408@reddit (OP)

They did not meter it. Lawyer up for a $1K windshield tint?

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SgtBadManners@reddit

You can usually pay $50 and have them get it dismissed.

I have done it a couple times with 90-92mph speed tickets. They get you off most of the time just by showing up and the officer not showing up.

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The_Dotted_Leg@reddit

Contact the place that did the tinting for the records, if you don’t already have them. If they indicate the tint is within the legal limits you can go to the court and fight it yourself. I usually always recommend hiring an attorney but traffic court for something like this is something you can totally handle on your own. Your worst case scenario is a lost day of work and having to pay to have it removed, so the stakes are fairly low.

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