so I replaced the incondescent drl's in my JDM headlights with ultraviolet l.e.ds a few weeks ago. Makes the top of the headlight glow kind of dark purple.

anways I goto pick up my friend at the airport last night and one of the cops their waves me over to the side and writes me a ticket for "unlawful blue lights emitting forward"

I told him they aren't blue they'r ultra violet.. he said whatever if they arent white, yellow or red then it's illegal. I said actually I looked into it before I installed them and the only illegal color for the front of your car is RED. He said if I don't believe him to go check some section of some code of some law.. what a pedantic jerk huh!

 

Yeah, I'd fight it. AFIK red is the ONLY illegal light color for the front. What about the Audi's that have a bluish headlight???

 

yea those blueish headlights are closer to blue than my ultraviolet l.e.ds which you can barely see when the headlights are on

 

I got ticket in LAX few weeks ago. Cops are just waiting to give a trivia tickets.
I got no front licence place.

 

looked up on vehicle codes..
technically he is right, only white and amber are allowed.

Running Lamps

25109. Any motor vehicle may be equipped with two white or amber running lamps mounted on the front, one at each side, which shall not be lighted during darkness except while the motor vehicle is parked.

Added Ch. 858, Stats. 1965. Effective September 17, 1965.




but according to below, I think he should have given you 24 hours to fix it.....

40151. (a) Whenever any lighting equipment or device does not meet requirements established by the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the officer making the inspection shall direct the driver to remove the lighting equipment or device within 24 hours.

(b) Whenever any lighting equipment or device meets requirements established by the department but by reason of faulty adjustment or otherwise fails to comply with this code, the officer making the inspection shall direct the driver to make it comply with this code within 48 hours.

Amended Ch. 723, Stats. 1979. Effective January 1, 1980.


If you are gonna fight it, read vehicle code
california vehicle code
good luck

 

Please do fight it and keep it up.

But I cannot stress enough to this entire board and everyone in the world that POLICE DO NOT HAVE QUOTAS, it is illegal for any law enforcement agency to enforce a quota among their workers, it suggests writing tickets for no reason in some areas or less than needed in some areas. NO QUOTA!

Personally I believe most cops (all my cop friends do) have a pet peeve for any LED lights on cars and find a reason to sight those equipped.

Good Luck Fighting
WRX Rush

 

I agree that theres no quota... exactly. But they are expected to write a fair amount of tickets, and if they say only write like 10 a year, they'll get in trouble, so no, they don't have to give X many tickets but they do have to write so many to not be seen as slackers. thats my 2 cents. DEFINITELY FIGHT IT. on ebay they sell blue ones that have police approval, I'd look at those too, c wat law allowed them/police endorsement. If its real. Fight it

 

yeah, technically.
ive talked to a lot of my cop friends and although there is no official quota they have to meet, there is some times pressure "off the record" to get more tickets witten up.

 

Thats what I was trying to say, thanx, i suck at wording things

 

Yes, there are "off the record" quotas. There may not be a specific number for each officer to reach, but if a few officers fall behind others in tickets per month, pressure is definitely put on them to get more tickets.

 

"shady" lights invite "shady" citations

just my $.02

 

haha, funny thing is I don't have a front plate either.. he didn't notice.

thanks for all the info btw, I'll take it to court with me. probably at least get out of the fine

 

I have talked to some law enforcement officials in my area and from what I could gather, it seems you can NOT have these colored lights in the front of your car:
1. Green (traffic lights)
2. Red (traffic lights)
3. Blue (used specifically by military)

I am sure that these cover colors that are close to these spectrums. Ultraviolet is close to the blue spectrum, hence the ticket. Sucks ... I know .... But I thought you should be informed before you take this to court. Be ready to be very techinical about the spectrum of colors and the wavelengths and why your spectrum doesn't fall into the blue spectrum. GLuck!!!