New Hampshire Bars Illuminating LED Light Bars and Pod Lights

Paragraph I governs spot lamps. A vehicle may carry not more than 2, and every lighted spot lamp must be aimed and used so that no part of the high intensity portion of the beam strikes the windshield, any windows, a mirror, or an occupant of another vehicle in use. The single exception written into the paragraph is for a police officer using a spot lamp to illuminate the interior of a vehicle being stopped from the rear.

Paragraph II governs auxiliary driving lamps. The cap is 3, they must be mounted on the front, and the mounting height must be not less than 12 inches nor more than 42 inches above the level surface on which the vehicle stands, measured from the ground to the centre of the lens. Vehicles used in the winter maintenance of ways may exceed the 42-inch ceiling, but only if the auxiliary head lamps are aimed so the top of the beam does not exceed a horizontal line 42 inches high at a distance of 75 feet ahead. Paragraph II-a raises the cap to 4 for motorcycles as defined in RSA 259:63, subject to the same 42-inch limit. Paragraph III requires every spot lamp and every auxiliary driving lamp to be approved by the director, so an unapproved lamp is unlawful even inside the numeric caps.

Paragraph IV is the provision that changed the picture for modern off-road lighting. Added by 2024, 220:4 with an effective date of September 17, 2024, it states that aftermarket LED light bars, flood light style pod lights, roof or roll bar mounted lights shall not be illuminated while operating on a way. The prohibition is on illumination during operation, not on fitting the equipment, which is why a bar can be carried and used off the way but must be switched off on the road.

Colour is handled next door in RSA 266:31, also amended in 2024. Paragraph II requires headlamps to shine white when shined against a white surface and requires all other forward facing lights to be amber or white. Paragraph III carves out fog lights, which are permitted to shine yellow. Paragraph IV disapplies the section to a vehicle with an original equipment manufacturer front lighting system, or a front lighting system of a similar type installed as standard equipment by the vehicle manufacturer, so factory adaptive and projector systems are outside the section's restrictions. RSA 266:31, I separately requires headlamps to sit between 24 and 54 inches from the ground on an unladen vehicle, measured to the centre of the lens, and bars any device that obstructs, reflects or alters the headlamp beam unless approved by the director.

Wide vehicles have their own allowance. RSA 266:45-a lets a vehicle 80 inches or more in overall width carry up to 5 identification lamps showing to the front, emitting amber or white light without glare, and up to 3 showing to the rear emitting red light without glare, grouped in a horizontal row with lamp centres 6 to 12 inches apart and mounted as close as practicable to the vertical centre line. Any vehicle may carry side marker lamps, which may flash in conjunction with turn or vehicular warning signals.

Emergency colours are closed off. RSA 266:78-b restricts blue lights to sworn law enforcement officers with power of arrest, state probation and parole officers and state correctional officers, with a single rear-facing blue light allowed for certain emergency response vehicles. RSA 266:78-c restricts red emergency lights to the fire, ambulance, rescue and emergency management vehicles it lists. RSA 266:78-e allows only authorized emergency vehicles, Department of Transportation construction and maintenance vehicles, and bicycles to be equipped with a device providing alternate flashing of headlamps. RSA 266:78-s, added by 2024, 220:3, allows a transportation network company or rideshare lighted sign to be illuminated only while the vehicle is not in motion.

An auxiliary lighting breach under RSA 266:37 carries the Title XXI general penalty in RSA 262:41, a fine of $50 plus penalty assessment for a first offence and $100 plus penalty assessment for a subsequent offence committed in the same calendar year, unless another statute provides otherwise. Illuminating an aftermarket LED light bar, a flood light style pod light or a roof or roll bar mounted light while operating on a way breaches RSA 266:37, IV directly. Fitting a spot lamp or auxiliary driving lamp that the director has not approved breaches paragraph III regardless of how it is aimed, and aiming a spot lamp so the high intensity part of the beam reaches another driver's windshield, windows, mirror or person breaches paragraph I.

Running a forward facing lamp in a colour other than amber or white, fog lights aside, breaches RSA 266:31, II. Offences in the emergency and warning light subdivision are graded separately: RSA 266:78-q makes them violations carrying $250 plus penalty assessment for a first offence and not less than $500 nor more than $1,000 plus penalty assessment for a second, allows the director or the court to suspend or revoke the licence or driving privilege for not less than 30 days, and escalates the use of blue lights to commit a misdemeanor into a misdemeanor and to commit a felony into a class B felony.

Note that none of this is now caught at a lane: the periodic inspection sections RSA 266:1 through 266:6 and 266:8 were repealed by 2025, 141:253 effective January 31, 2026, and RSA 266:78-o was repealed by the same act, so a lighting breach is found at a traffic stop.