Arrest Reports and Laws

Exemptions from requirements for use of lights.


This section establishes exemptions from ORS 811.515 and 811.520. The exemptions under this section are in addition to any exemptions under ORS 801.026. The exemptions established under this section are partial or complete as described in the following:
(1) ORS 811.515 and 811.520 shall not be construed to prohibit the use of additional parts and accessories on any vehicle not inconsistent with the provisions of those sections.
(2) Except for the provisions relating to exempt-vehicle safety lighting equipment, ORS 811.515 and 811.520 do not apply to any of the following:
(a) Road machinery.
(b) Road rollers.
(c) Farm tractors.
(d) Antique vehicles that are maintained as a collector’s item and used for exhibitions, parades, club activities and similar uses, but not used primarily for the transportation of persons or property.
(3) Whenever motor and other vehicles are operated in combination during the time that lights are required, any lighting equipment, except the taillight, which by reason of its location on a vehicle of the combination would be obscured by another vehicle of the combination, need not be lighted. This subsection shall not affect the requirement that lighted clearance lights be displayed on the front of the foremost vehicle required to have clearance lights nor the requirement that all lights on the rear of the rearmost vehicle of the combination be lighted.
(4) Lighting equipment on bicycles shall be lighted as required under ORS 815.280.
(5) Parked or stopped vehicles are not required to display parking lights if the road authority for the highway provides by ordinance or resolution that no lights need be displayed upon a vehicle parked on the highway in accordance with legal parking regulations where there is sufficient light to render clearly discernible any person or object within a distance of 500 feet from the highway.
(6) Nothing under ORS 811.515 and 811.520 limits the ability to use the following lights with any other lights during the day or at night:
(a) Public vehicle warning lights.
(b) Pilot vehicle warning lights.
(c) Tow vehicle warning lights.
(d) Police lights.
(e) Warning lights on vehicles at the scene of an actual or potential release of hazardous materials, as described in ORS 816.280.
(f) Warning lights on vehicles being used by medical examiners to reach the scene of an accident or of a death investigation, as described in ORS 816.280.
(g) Commercial vehicle warning lights.
(7) Requirements for use of motorcycle and moped headlights are under ORS 814.320.
(8) Requirements for lighting equipment for an electric personal assistive mobility device are under ORS 815.284. [1983 c.338 §661; 1985 c.16 §324; 1985 c.71 §8; 1999 c.497 §2; 2003 c.245 §2; 2003 c.341 §9; 2015 c.138 §30]