I thought it was a federal safety standard, but I guess not. I've never given it much thought because my SOP is to depress the clutch when starting. I brought up the question because I let someone else drive my 190 and they cranked it without depressing the clutch in first gear, so you can guess what happened. (At least the parking brake was engaged.) I didn't think the person was such a dim bulb that they woundn't either depress the clutch or place the gear selector in neutral.

Since my '76 Cosworth Vega (and my '91 MR2) has such a clutch safety switch, but my '63 Corvette ( I'm the original owner) does not, I assumed that a clutch safety switch was one of the many FMVSS that went into effect in the late sixties/early seventies.

Duke