News Article: Federal judge rules drivers allowed to flash headlights to warn of speed traps

Wasn't this settled years ago? Or was that another state? Guess so.

In the United States, the legality of headlight flashing varies from state to state. Some states consider that drivers have a First Amendment right to flash their headlights. In other states, law enforcement officers give citations for headlight flashing under three types of laws: (1) laws prohibiting a person from obstructing a police investigation, (2) laws prohibiting a person from having flashing lights on their vehicle, and (3) laws prohibiting shining a vehicle’s high beams at oncoming traffic.

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All three are pretty ridiculous.

I got my first ticket in over 15 years a month ago, on a Sunday at noon; he was sitting at the bottom of a hill that had about a 75 degree curve. If he had been parked on the street I wouldn't have seen him until I was upon him, but he was hiding behind an entrance sign to a retirement community.
First time I have ever gotten a ticket at the bottom of a hill.
Flashing headlights may or may not have helped, due to the curve.

I've been doing it for years.

I used to never flash my lights to warn oncoming drivers. That is, until I got caught in a speed trap on a road without a posted speed limit. According to the court, I should have been aware of the (little-known) law that dictates the speed limit on a county road on which there is no posted speed limit. After all, it is in the driver's manual - tiny print and all. (silly me). Ever since then, I flash my lights at every opportunity. I may have had to pay the fine on my "offense", but I guarantee you that I've cost them way more in potential income from other drivers than I had to pay them. What goes around, comes around. :biggrin2:

Good!

That's so nice of the Judge to give us the right to help other drivers keep their speeds down.

TIDE-HSV said:

I've also done it for decades and will continue. One thing to remember is that a lot of LEOs (certainly not all) actually get off on cuffing someone and throwing them in jail, even when they know there are no charges which have a prayer of sticking...

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Maybe they should have their own 3-strikes law-- you arrest 3 people in a [12, 18, or 24] month period with no charges being filed, and you're fired.

jthomas666 said:

Wasn't this settled years ago? Or was that another state? Guess so.

In the United States, the legality of headlight flashing varies from state to state. Some states consider that drivers have a First Amendment right to flash their headlights. In other states, law enforcement officers give citations for headlight flashing under three types of laws: (1) laws prohibiting a person from obstructing a police investigation, (2) laws prohibiting a person from having flashing lights on their vehicle, and (3) laws prohibiting shining a vehicle’s high beams at oncoming traffic.

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All three are pretty ridiculous.

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(1) Obstructing a police investigation: If warning other drivers constitutes obstruction, then so do neighborhood watch and home security system signs, or simple warnings to criminals that "I'll call the police!".

(2) Prohibition against having flashing lights on a vehicle: If high beams are considered illegal flashing lights, every vehicle in the country is illegal. Arrest everyone.

(3) Prohibiting shining high beams at oncoming traffic: This is the most legitimate justification of the three. But again, there's not a driver alive who doesn't on occasion forget to drop to low beams. And the widely accepted reminder is to briefly flash high beams. A brief flash is also the widely-accepted method of communicating to merging drivers that they are clear to merge. Truckers commonly thank such a flash by briefly flashing their own running lights. A brief flash is a courtesy, and one much appreciated by most.

Bottom line: all three of these justifications are cop-outs (no pun intended) to avoid the truth of it: slowing speeding traffic ceased years ago to be the purpose of writing tickets.

If the goal were to slow traffic, they'd welcome people giving warnings. In fact, they'd welcome people giving false warnings - flashes when no police are present, just like when neighborhood watch and home security system signs are put up when there's no watch or system. It serves as a deterrent, in this case against speeding.

It's the same reason that in several parts of the country (Tennessee is notorious for this), being in possession of cash is by itself reason enough for the state to confiscate it under suspicion of something nefarious, even if there's no other indication of anything illegal taking place. Even if your innocence is proven beyond any doubt (a burden which the accused shouldn't have to bear in this country), many state and local governments refuse to return the confiscated money, or it costs many thousands more in legal fees to force that return than what was confiscated to begin with.

The real purpose of writing speeding tickets is that it's a huge source of revenue for the county, municipality, and state. Flashed warnings get in the way of that back-door tax. Sad to say, but many governments now operate under the assumption that we work for them.

</rant>

Uh, this article is from February 5th!!!!

selmaborntidefan said:

Uh, this article is from February 5th!!!!

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:biggrin2: I thought I recalled a thread on this topic from earlier this year. Maybe not...

I remember there was a thread about some guy standing on the side of the road holding a sign warning about a speed trap.

I don't flash my lights, but a law banning it is clearly unconstitutional. Are you going to arrest a trucker that tells people on his CB radio about a cop being up ahead?