Alaska Auxiliary Lights: 300-Candlepower Trigger, Four-Lamp Cap, Two Spotlights

Alaska carries no auxiliary-lighting figure in statute. The commissioner of public safety adopts vehicle equipment standards under AS 28.05.011(a)(2), and the operative rule is 13 AAC 04.145, Restrictions on lighting equipment, backed by the chapter's other lighting sections.

The candlepower trigger is what makes the Alaska rule bite. Subsection (a) applies once a vehicle already carrying the headlights the chapter requires is also fitted with an auxiliary light, spotlight, or other light on the front that projects a beam of intensity greater than 300 candlepower. From that point no more than four front lights in total may be illuminated at any time when there is approaching traffic, so a light bar or a pair of driving lamps run alongside two headlights uses the whole allowance. The same subsection pulls auxiliary lights into the mounting and visibility rules of 13 AAC 04.015, which requires them to be securely mounted so the beam cannot be misdirected.

Subsection (b) bans three things outright on a vehicle driven or moved on a highway: a red light visible from directly in front of the centre of the vehicle, a flashing or rotating light, and an alternately flashing light. The only carve-outs are the sections it names, which are 13 AAC 04.037 (turn lights), 13 AAC 04.040 (additional lighting requirements) and 13 AAC 04.090 through 13 AAC 04.100 (authorised emergency vehicles, flashing yellow hazard warning lights, school buses and flashing blue lights). A private vehicle with strobes, wig-wags or a rotating beacon fits none of them.

Spotlights get their own limit in subsection (d): not more than two on a vehicle, and no spotlight may be illuminated and aimed so that part of the high intensity portion of the beam strikes the windshield, windows, mirror or occupant of another vehicle on a roadway. The exception is written for one group only, a police officer in the performance of official duties.

Subsection (e) fixes the colours at the back. A lighting device or reflector mounted on the rear must display or reflect red, except a stop light or other signal device which may be red or yellow; the registration plate light and backup lights must be white; and a backup light may not be turned on when the vehicle is moving forward. Subsection (f) then makes the whole colour scheme exclusive: no motor vehicle may be operated on a roadway with any colour of light illuminated other than the colours the chapter specifies. Blue is reserved by 13 AAC 04.100(h), which permits it only under that section, and only for a firefighter, an emergency medical service responder or a police officer acting with the concurrence of the chief of that person's department, or for a private vehicle authorised through the notarised certification process in 13 AAC 04.100(i).

Alaska does authorise lighting other states do not, and it is winter equipment. Under 13 AAC 04.040(l) a motor vehicle with a snow plow or similar device attached to the front must carry two auxiliary multiple-beam headlights mounted above the uppermost position of the blade where the blade obstructs the vehicle's own headlights, and those lights may not be attached higher than the cab top. Flashing yellow is required, not merely allowed, for the vehicles listed in 13 AAC 04.095(c): Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, municipal and contractor vehicles working on or within eight feet of a roadway, public utility vehicles doing the same, vehicles towing a house or building, pilot cars under 17 AAC 25.090, and vehicles removing snow from private property or subdivision streets when they move onto, across or within eight feet of a roadway. 13 AAC 04.095(i) then forbids switching those same lights on while lawfully parked in an urban district or stopped in traffic.

One saving provision runs the other way. 13 AAC 04.001(b) says nothing in the chapter prohibits equipment required by the United States Department of Transportation or the use of a part or accessory that is not inconsistent with the chapter, and a conflicting federal motor vehicle safety standard supersedes the state rule for vehicles that must meet it. Factory daytime running lamps and factory fog lamps are reached through that provision rather than through an Alaska exemption.

Improper auxiliary lighting is enforced at the roadside, because Alaska has no periodic safety inspection: 13 AAC 06.060, the periodic inspection requirement, was annulled under AS 44.62.320 on 5/26/76. Instead 13 AAC 04.006 lets a police officer with reasonable cause to believe a vehicle is not equipped as the chapter requires order the driver to stop and submit the vehicle to inspection and tests, and requires a driver to stop where a sign or a uniformed officer directs vehicles into a roadside inspection.

The Alaska Supreme Court's traffic bail forfeiture schedule, Administrative Rule 43.1 adopted under AS 28.05.151, prices the offences separately. Improper use of auxiliary or spot lights under 13 AAC 04.145(a) to (e) carries bail of $60. The same subsections charged as restrictions on lighting equipment are listed as Corr/40, a correctable offence with $40 bail. Use of lights in colours not authorised under 13 AAC 04.145(f) carries $50, and improper use of flashing blue lights under 13 AAC 04.100(a) to (h) carries $60.

Where the offence is listed as correctable, 13 AAC 04.007 requires the citation to name the section violated and the repair required and to set a court date at least five days out excluding holidays and weekends, and lets the driver have the work done at a place of their choosing within a 100-mile radius. 13 AAC 04.008 then allows the driver to present the vehicle at an Alaska State Trooper post, at the police agency that inspected it, or at an official inspection station, after which the inspecting officer voids the citation and notifies the court.

A conviction that is not correctable is an infraction under AS 28.90.010(c) with a fine of up to $300, plus the $20 surcharge imposed by AS 12.55.039(a)(4). AS 28.05.151(d) doubles the scheduled amount for an offence committed in a highway work zone or a traffic safety corridor as defined in AS 28.90.990. Because AS 28.01.010(a) forbids a municipality from enacting an ordinance inconsistent with Title 28 or its regulations, a borough cannot authorise a light bar the state rule prohibits.