A roadside inspection report rarely says much. An officer watched a truck roll through a stop sign, or saw a driver cut past a flagger in a work zone, and typed a code. For traffic-control violations, that code is 392.2-SLLTCD. It looks like a paperwork detail. It is actually one of the more common moving-violation entries in the Unsafe Driving BASIC, and it is worth understanding before your next inspection.
The raw record for this code, including its description and counts, lives on the violation page. I'll walk through what the code means and how it is weighted.
What the code covers
The official description reads: "State/Local Laws - Failed to obey a traffic control device - Permanent or Temporary - e.g., safety official, signal, sign, light, lane marking, other." That list covers a lot of ground:
- Permanent devices: stop and yield signs, traffic signals, lane-use signs, truck restriction signs, and painted lane markings.
- Temporary devices: cones, barricades, portable signs, and lane closures in work zones.
- Human direction: a police officer, flagger, or other safety official directing traffic. Their hand signals count the same as a signal light.
The point is that the device does not have to be a sign on a post. If a legally authorized person or device tells you where to go and you don't comply, the code applies.
Why the number starts with 392.2
Section 392.2 of 49 CFR says, in substance, that a commercial motor vehicle must be operated in accordance with the laws, ordinances, and regulations of the jurisdiction in which it is being operated. The federal rule does not write its own list of traffic signals. It borrows the state or local traffic code and makes a violation of that code a federal inspection finding for a CMV driver. That is why the suffix says SLLTCD, for state and local laws and traffic control devices.
This matters in practice. A driver who gets cited by a local officer for running a red light has also, in the inspection record, violated 392.2. The enforcement authority is state law. The federal reporting system is where it lands.
How FMCSA counts it
The violation feeds the Unsafe Driving BASIC within FMCSA's Safety Measurement System (SMS). The grounding data for this code shows a severity weight of 5 and an out-of-service indicator of false. Across the recorded instances as of October 20, 2026, there were 149,069 violations logged for this code. Only 2 of them were out-of-service, which rounds to an OOS rate of 0.
The calculator uses a few constants that matter for this code:
- Time weighting: a violation counts 3 in its first six months, 2 from six to twelve months, 1 from twelve to twenty-four months, and 0 after that. Older violations fade out.
- OOS bonus: the calculator carries an out-of-service bonus of 2, but Unsafe Driving is on the exempt list. This code is also not flagged OOS, so the bonus does not apply here.
- Per-inspection cap: severity contributions per inspection per BASIC are capped at 30. One bad stop does not compound without limit inside a single inspection.
Put simply, this is a moderately weighted moving violation that ages out of your score within two years. It is not an out-of-service event, but it still counts against the Unsafe Driving BASIC while it is in the window. For terms like BASIC, SMS, and percentile, the glossary has short definitions.
Where drivers actually lose points on it
The usual patterns are not dramatic. They are small habits:
- Yellow-to-red decisions at signals, where the driver chose to go through instead of stopping.
- Work zones, where drivers follow the lane shift from the sign ahead but miss a cone taper or a flagger's instruction at the last moment.
- Truck restrictions, where a driver takes a route that a "trucks prohibited" or "truck route" sign specifically excludes, often because the GPS did not account for it.
- Lane markings, where a double-yellow or a painted turn-only arrow gets crossed in heavy traffic.
Most of these are preventable with a pre-trip and route habit. Check your route against the posted truck restrictions before you leave, not after the GPS reroutes you. Slow down early for work zones and treat the taper as the rule, not a suggestion. When a flagger is directing traffic, the flagger wins, even if the signal says otherwise.
Key takeaways
- 392.2-SLLTCD covers failure to obey state or local traffic control devices, including permanent and temporary signs, signals, lane markings, and directions from safety officials.
- Section 392.2 makes state and local traffic law binding on CMV operations, so a local citation shows up as a federal inspection finding.
- The code carries a severity weight of 5, is not flagged out-of-service, and has an OOS rate of 0 across 149,069 recorded instances as of October 20, 2026.
- Its time weight drops from 3 to 0 over 24 months, so it fades, but it still counts while it is in the window.
- Most losses come from routine habits: yellow-light choices, work zone taper, truck restrictions, and lane markings.
If you want to see how a single citation like this would move your Unsafe Driving standing over time, the calculator applies the same time tiers and caps described above to whatever violations you enter.