getting pulled over for having a blue led strip in my grill in virginia

It's also illegal in CA to have any color other than white or amber (yellow) to the front and red or amber to the rear. Red/blue are reserved for emergency vehicles only.

You may be heading to court because you intentionally installed a non-approved lamp (light) on your vehicle.

Ray

 

well the thing is I don't live in Virginia I work there I live in TN and TN has totally different laws they don't care whatsoever about modifications to vehicles you can drive with a 2X4 as a bumper

 

Such a law is ridiculous and unjust.

What state is more oppressive? The Peoples Republic if Commiefornia or the slave state of New York? I have no use for either one.

 

Took less than 5 minutes to find this and bold the applicable text for you:

It is illegal in your home state, too. Whether they have time to enforce it or not is anyone's guess. As a policy, lots of offenses are deemed not serious enough in and of themselves to warrant making a traffic stop, but they get piled on when you are stopped for something else.

Mike

 

^^ This

You can leave the lights on the truck, you just can't have them on while driving on a state road. This is pretty common across the country as it can make your truck look like an unmarked police vehicle

 

In Virginia the Police use Blue Lights on their vehicles. You could be assumed to be impersonating a Police Officer as an unmarked vehicle.

 

Pay attention to the last sentence of the code section.

You're going to be assessed court costs whether you appear in court or pre-pay it, So, if you can afford to miss a day's work - remove it and go to court. Worst case scenario is you get convicted and pay the same fine and costs. As for points on your license, I don't think equipment violation result in points but I'm not sure. The goal of the legislation is to get you to remove the non-permissible lights, SO REMOVE THE LIGHTS! Maybe the judge will see that as a better outcome than taking money from you.


§ 46.2-1020. Other permissible lights.
Any motor vehicle may be equipped with fog lights, not more than two of which can be illuminated at any time, one or two auxiliary driving lights if so equipped by the manufacturer, two daytime running lights, two side lights of not more than six candlepower, an interior light or lights of not more than 15 candlepower each, and signal lights.
The provision of this section limiting interior lights to no more than 15 candlepower shall not apply to (i) alternating, blinking, or flashing colored emergency lights mounted inside law-enforcement motor vehicles which may otherwise legally be equipped with such colored emergency lights, or (ii) flashing shielded red or red and white lights, authorized under § 46.2-1024, mounted inside vehicles owned or used by (a) members of volunteer fire companies or volunteer rescue squads, (b) professional fire fighters, or (c) police chaplains. A vehicle equipped with lighting devices as authorized in this section shall be operated by a police chaplain only if he has successfully completed a course of training in the safe operation of a motor vehicle under emergency conditions and a certificate attesting to such successful completion, signed by the course instructor, is carried at all times in the vehicle when operated by the police chaplain to whom the certificate applies.
Unless such lighting device is both covered and unlit, no motor vehicle which is equipped with any lighting device other than lights required or permitted in this article, required or approved by the Superintendent, or required by the federal Department of Transportation shall be operated on any highway in the Commonwealth. Nothing in this section shall permit any vehicle, not otherwise authorized, to be equipped with colored emergency lights, whether blinking or steady-burning.

 

Similar but unrelated to the blue lights. We were driving on the FL turnpike recently, traffic was going crazy and there was a slight rain.

In the distance I see a bright flashing red light. Others saw it also and this was resulting in the crazy driving.

As I approached closer, realized it was not a firetruck, but some dummy had left his flashing bicycle tail light on when he tossed his bike in the back of his truck.

PK

 

You're not a cop, take it off



It's illegal in Canada too. They're tacky as hell anyway.

 

I would definitely go to court. A lot of counties in VA will drop any traffic ticket as long as you show up in court. (And pay the court fee of course )

And this^^

 

Yeah, and the cops drive around with their lights flashing all the time. I asked a local guy why, and he said "that means they are working." I guess they leave them off when going on a noodle run.

Sorry, OP, I know this doesn't help you. The ticket should have a phone number somewhere on it, call it.

 

this is what it looked like before I removed it no it doesn't flash it's just 6 inch blue light

 

yeah...that looks too much like a cop light.

Lots of cops here have roof mounted LED blue strips and leave it steady on when cruising around at night.

 

looks alike the prick cops lights.

 

I can't believe your even asking this question....

 

I gotta ask... what the heck we're you thinking?

 

I wouldn't drive based on that belief, I live in Stafford and know people who have gotten tickets all over the area and the only ticket that got dropped was a fix-it ticket for tint in prince william or fairfax i dont remember, some got reduced but no others got dropped. All of the people went to court.

your lucky all you got is a fix it ticket, i think they could give you more since they do look like police lights. like others said, take pics after you take them off and take them to court, they should drop it. no points on your license. I think there is a list of offenses where you get points on the VA dmv website.

In VA I think you are only allowed head lights and fog lights while driving on the road. I also believe that you are only allowed to have white and amber lights on the front (head lights and parking/DTRL on our trucks).

And yeah VA police only use blue lights so blue was definitely a mistake here haha

 

There should be a phone number on the ticket for you to call or look up the court clerks number for the courthouse where you are supposed to report

 

The cop was thinking you were gay.

 

Yup.

Depends on the officer, and also depends on if the driver fails the attitude test.
Some (and in recent years, I've been encountering more and more) officers will write a "fixit" for something that is legitimately broken, but will tag the citation "non-correctable" for items like window tinting and illegal lighting, following the premise that a "fixit" is for something that is broken, but if the owner intentionally did something not in compliance, they meant to violate the law and would do so again if only given a "fixit"