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2003 SESSION


CHAPTER 153
An Act to amend and reenact §§ 46.2-1020 and 46.2-1024 of the Code of Virginia, relating to red warning lights on vehicles used by police chaplains in answering emergency calls.
[H 2795]
Approved March 16, 2003

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 46.2-1020 and 46.2-1024 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 46.2-1020. Other permissible lights.

Any motor vehicle may be equipped with one or two fog lights, 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 fifteen 15 candlepower each, and signal lights.

The provision of this section limiting interior lights to no more than fifteen 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 or owned or used by, (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.

§ 46.2-1024. Flashing or steady-burning red or red and white warning lights.

Any member of a fire department, volunteer fire company, or volunteer rescue squad and, any ambulance driver employed by a privately owned ambulance service, and any police chaplain may equip one vehicle owned by him with no more than two flashing or steady-burning red or red and white combination warning lights of types approved by the Superintendent. Warning lights permitted by this section shall be lit only when answering emergency calls. 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.