In Vermont Amber Is the Only Flashing Colour a Civilian Vehicle May Show

Vermont splits the question into flashing light and steady light, and the flashing side is the strict one. Section 1251(a) lists four prohibited configurations. A siren, an emergency warning lamp, and a blue light of any kind each require a permit issued by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and carried in the vehicle, unless § 1252 says no permit is needed for that class of vehicle. The fourth item is the one that catches ordinary drivers: a lamp that is not an emergency warning lamp and provides a flashing light in a colour other than amber is banned outright, with no permit route. That reaches flashing white strobes, red or green accent lamps, and flashing underbody kits. The single carve-out is a motorcycle headlamp modulation system meeting the criteria of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, codified at 49 C.F.R. § 571.108.

Section 1254, added by 2023 Act 165 effective 1 July 2024, defines an emergency warning lamp as a lamp or lamps providing a flashing light to identify an authorized vehicle on an emergency mission, either a rotating beacon or pairs of alternately or simultaneously flashing lamps, and expressly excludes a lamp providing an exclusively amber flashing light. That exclusion is what keeps amber outside the permit regime.

Section 1252 sets out who is exempt. Law enforcement vehicles owned or leased by the federal government, a municipality, a county, the State, or the Vermont Criminal Justice Council may run sirens and blue, or blue and white, emergency warning lamps without a permit, plus a red or red and amber lamp mounted to be visible primarily from the rear. Government-owned emergency services vehicles get sirens with red or red and white lamps, plus a rear-facing blue or blue and amber lamp. Privately owned vehicles belonging to certified law enforcement officers, ambulances, fire department vehicles, rescue vehicles, and volunteer firefighters and rescue squad members need an individual permit, and the Commissioner records both the owner and the applicant when the vehicle is not owned by the applicant. Restored emergency vehicles may carry the lamps for exhibition, but § 1252(c) allows activation only during an exhibition such as a car show or parade. Subsection (d) requires amber signal lamps on road maintenance vehicles, service vehicles, and wreckers, and on all registered snow removal equipment while removing snow on public highways, mounted so as to be visible from all sides.

Steady auxiliary lamps run through § 1246. During the lighted period defined by § 1243, which is from 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise, a vehicle may not use any lighting device over four candle power equipped with a reflector unless the device, its lens, and the candle power are approved by the Commissioner, and unless the reflected beam measured 75 feet or more ahead of the lamps rises no more than six inches above the height of the bulb and in no event more than 42 inches from the level surface the vehicle stands on under all load conditions. Spotlights may not be used when vehicles approach from opposite directions except when projecting their rays directly on the ground no more than 30 feet in front. Under § 1247 the manufacturer or distributor of a light-controlling device or lens must apply to the Commissioner for approval, and the Commissioner may run laboratory and road tests or simply adopt the approval or disapproval of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

The annual inspection under 23 V.S.A. § 1222 is where much of this is caught. The Periodic Inspection Manual, form VN-113 revision 3/2026, tells the mechanic to reject a vehicle if lamps are not DOT or SAE approved with appropriate markings, if a lamp shows a colour contrary to the required-lighting chart, or if auxiliary equipment is placed on or in front of any lamp, calling out aftermarket tinted lamp covers by name. It also rejects a lighted advertising sign that emits blue or red light to the front or rear, and any light so bright that it interferes with the vision of an approaching or following driver, and it states that a vehicle displaying red or blue lights without the § 1253 permit is a fail. Two items are only advisory: non-required lamps that do not operate as designed are no longer fail criteria, and on a motorcycle an auxiliary or aftermarket licence plate or undercarriage glow light, whether flashing or steady burning, draws an advise-the-customer note rather than a rejection. Section 1253 adds a hard gate of its own: no inspection sticker may be issued for a vehicle equipped with a siren or a coloured signal lamp unless a current valid permit for it is produced.

00. chapter 29. § 2502, so a ticket for an unlawful lamp does not by itself count toward the 10-points-in-two-years suspension trigger in § 2505. The Commissioner may revoke a siren or emergency warning lamp permit for cause under § 1252(a)(2)(A). Section 1255(b) creates a separate duty for permitted vehicles: the equipment may be used only in the direct performance of official duties, and when anyone other than a law enforcement officer drives a vehicle equipped under § 1252(a), the emergency warning lamps must be removed, covered, or hooded.

The same applies to a § 1252(b) emergency services vehicle driven by someone who is not an authorised EMS operator, firefighter, or rescue operator, unless that person holds a senior operator licence. 00 penalty only for a citation issued within 14 days after the sticker expires.