Oklahoma Caps Extra Lamps at Two Each and Bans Forward Red, Blue and Flashing

Section 12-217 opens with definitions that decide which rule you are under. An "auxiliary driving lamp" is a lamp mounted to provide illumination to the front of the vehicle. A "front fog lamp" and a "rear fog lamp" are lamps mounted to light the front or the rear during rain, snow, fog, dust or other atmospheric disturbances. An "off-road lamp" is any lamp designed and manufactured solely for off-road use. A "spot lamp" is a movable lamp emitting a brilliant focused beam for examining objects, street address numbers and other things alongside the road. A light bar sold as an off-road product is therefore an off-road lamp under subsection G whatever the buyer intends, and it may not be used on a highway at all.

Spot lamps get the most detailed handling. Subsection B allows not more than two, and they may never substitute for headlamps. Subsection C requires the operator to switch a spot lamp off immediately on the approach of another vehicle from any direction within one thousand (1,000) feet, forbids turning one on when approaching or following another vehicle within one thousand feet, and forbids using one to make another vehicle yield right-of-way or stop. That last clause is aimed at drivers imitating a police stop, and subsection C exempts operators of authorized emergency vehicles from all three rules.

Fog lamps come in pairs and carry a weather trigger. Subsection D allows not more than two front fog lamps or two rear fog lamps, usable only when visibility is limited to one-half (1/2) mile or less by the conditions named in the definitions. Front fog lamps must be mounted on the same level on opposite sides of the front of the vehicle, at or below headlamp level, and may be wired with lower beam headlamps or switch controlled in conjunction with the headlamps, but they never replace headlamps when headlamps are required.

Auxiliary driving lamps run the opposite way from most equipment height rules: subsection E allows not more than two mounted at a height of more than forty-two (42) inches from the ground, a floor rather than a ceiling, and permits them with either low or high beams at the driver's discretion. Subsection F then aims every fog lamp and auxiliary driving lamp: no part of the high intensity portion of the beam may rise above the horizontal plane passing through the center of the lamp at a distance of twenty-five (25) feet.

Off-road lamps are the one place Oklahoma allows genuinely bright forward lighting, and only off the highway. Subsection G permits them as headlamps while the vehicle is driven off a highway, provided they are mounted not less than forty-two (42) inches from the ground, wired independently of all other lighting, and turned off whenever the vehicle is on a highway. Subsection H caps daytime running lamps at two, requires them to conform to 49 C.F.R. Section 571.108, S5.5.11, forbids using them in place of headlamps, and requires wiring that turns them on automatically when the vehicle starts and off automatically when the headlamp control is in any "on" position.

Section 12-227 supplies the ceiling that catches everything else. Subsection A says any lighted lamp other than headlamps, spot lamps, auxiliary driving lamps, flashing turn signals, hazard warning lamps, emergency vehicle lamps, snow removal and construction warning lamps and school or church bus warning lamps that projects a beam greater than three hundred (300) candlepower must be aimed so that no part of the high intensity portion strikes the roadway more than seventy-five (75) feet from the vehicle. Subsection B forbids driving with any lamp or device displaying, or capable of displaying, a red or blue light visible from directly in front of its center, outside the emergency vehicle, wrecker, school bus and snow removal provisions. Subsection C prohibits flashing lights except in eleven listed situations, which include turn signals, hazard warnings, side marker lamps flashing in conjunction with them, farm tractors and implements of husbandry, rural and contract route mail carriers, refuse and recycling collection vehicles, and wreckers at the scene of an emergency. Subsection D repeats the point for blue lights alone.

Two background rules complete the picture. Section 12-201(A) adopts the United States Department of Transportation specifications and standards at 49 C.F.R. Section 571.108 for headlamps, auxiliary driving lamps, tail lamps, signal lamps, reflectors and other lighting equipment, and Section 12-201(B) requires every vehicle to display its lamps from one-half hour after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise and whenever persons and vehicles are not clearly discernible at one thousand feet. Section 12-201(C) requires a steady light unless the chapter says otherwise, and Section 12-201(D) forbids any lamp other than a headlamp to project a glaring light. Section 12-101(B)(2) permits additional parts and accessories that are not inconsistent with the chapter, which is the clause a lawful accessory lamp lives under.

Lighting is the rare corner of Title 47 that carries its own elevated penalty. 00), or both. That is four times the ordinary Title 47 maximum fine and applies to a forward-facing red or blue lamp, an unauthorized flashing light, or any blue light on a private vehicle. 00) or up to ten (10) days in jail on a first conviction. Section 12-101(H) allows dismissal without court costs where the driver produces proof within forty-eight (48) hours that the cited condition has been remedied, which covers rewiring or removing a lamp after a citation. 1 are outside the equipment chapter altogether by Section 12-101(F).