Having severely tinted car windows is enough to get you pulled over in New York state. But as of Jan. 1, it can also lead you to fail your car inspection.

In November, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law that requires the examination of tinted or shaded windows during a vehicle’s annual state inspection.

If the windshield or front side windows are composed of, covered by, or treated with material that block more than 30 percent of the light, then that vehicle would fail the New York state safety inspection, and the window tint would have to be removed or fixed.

Rear side windows also can’t block more than 30 percent of the light for vehicles designated as “passenger cars,” such as station wagons, sedans, hardtops, coupes, hatchbacks and convertibles.

For SUVs or vans, any darkness can be used on the rear side windows.

State Sen. John DeFrancisco, who sponsored the bill, said public safety was the driving factor behind the legislation.

“Dark car windows can inhibit drivers from making necessary eye contact with pedestrians and other drivers, said DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse.

“In addition, they can place law enforcement officers in jeopardy when making traffic stops because they cannot see what activity is occurring inside the vehicle.”

According to Harry Snellings, Jamestown police chief, the new law is a positive development.

“From a safety standpoint, it’s nice to be able to see inside a vehicle, especially when we’re approaching it and they’re multiple people inside,” he said. “Having a window highly tinted is unsafe for us. So for us, this (new law) is a positive thing. It gives us one less thing to enforce.”

Measuring a window’s tint requires a tint meter — an instrument that ranges from $150 to $300 apiece and that every autoshop must now purchase.

Ron Barker, owner of Jamestown Auto Center, located at 1024 Fairmount Ave., said the meter, while an additional cost and task for his inspectors, is not a burden and does not add a significant amount of time to an inspection.

“Putting the tint meter on takes less than 30 seconds,” he said. “If the window looks good and there’s obviously no tint, we don’t even have to put the tint meter on it … only if we suspect it to be darker.”

James Waterman, service manager of Tanner’s Garage, located at 226 Steele St., said using the tint meter may take a total of 10-15 minutes, depending on the type of vehicle and number of windows tinted.

“If windows have tint, the vehicle will fail and (drivers) will have 10 days to get it off,” he said. “If they have privacy glass, where the glass itself is already dark, we have to tell them to buy a different glass.”

Both Barker and Waterman said their shops are able to remove tint from windows, if necessary.

“Any time there’s a new regulation like this, people tend to get nervous,” Barker said. “But once we study it, get used to it and prepare for it, it’s not a big deal.”