1. Every motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle, or motorized bicycle, when operated upon a highway shall be equipped with brakes adequate to control the movement of and to stop and hold such vehicle, including two separate means of applying the brakes, each of which means shall be effective to apply the brakes to at least two wheels. If these two separate means of applying the brakes are connected in any way, they shall be so constructed that failure of any one part of the operating mechanism shall not leave the motor vehicle without brakes on at least two wheels.
2. Every motorcycle and motorized bicycle, when operated upon a highway, shall be equipped with at least one brake, which may be operated by hand or foot.
3. Every trailer or semitrailer of a gross weight of three thousand pounds or more, and every trailer coach or travel trailer of a gross weight of three thousand pounds or more intended for use for human habitation, when operated on the highways of this state, shall be equipped with brakes adequate to control the movement of and to stop and hold such vehicle, and so designed as to be applied by the driver of the towing motor vehicle from its cab, or with self-actuating brakes, and weight equalizing hitch with a sway control of a type approved by the director of transportation. Every semitrailer, travel trailer, or trailer coach of a gross weight of three thousand pounds or more shall be equipped with a separate, auxiliary means of applying the brakes on the semitrailer, travel trailer, or trailer coach from the cab of the towing vehicle. Trailers or semitrailers with a truck or truck tractor need only comply with the brake requirements.
4. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, every new motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer hereafter sold in this state and operated upon the highways shall be equipped with service brakes upon all wheels of every such vehicle with the following exceptions:
a. Any motorcycle or motorized bicycle.
b. Any trailer or semitrailer of less than three thousand pounds gross weight need not be equipped with brakes.
c. Trucks and truck tractors equipped with three or more axles and manufactured before July 25, 1980, need not have brakes on the front wheels, except that such vehicles equipped with two or more front axles shall be equipped with brakes on at least one of the axles; however, the service brakes of the vehicle shall comply with the performance requirements of section 321.431.
d. Only such brakes on the vehicle or vehicles being towed in a driveaway-towaway operation need be operative as may be necessary to insure compliance by the combination of vehicles with the performance requirements of section 321.431. The term "driveaway-towaway" operation as used in this subsection means any operation in which any motor vehicle or motor vehicles, new or used, constitute the commodity being transported, when one set or more of wheels of any such motor vehicle or motor vehicles are on the roadway during the course of transportation, whether or not any such motor vehicle furnishes the motive power.
[S13, § 1571-m17; C24, 27, 31, 35, § 5039; C39, § 5034.39; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 321.430]
88 Acts, ch 1044, §1
Referred to in § 321.189, 321.464, 805.8(2e)
Iowa General Assembly
Search: Iowa Code 1997
© 1997 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa
Comments? webmaster@legis.iowa.gov.
Last update: Mon Jan 27 16:05:08 CST 1997
URL: /DOCS/IACODE/1997/321/430.html
jhf