CHAP. 144.—_An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2142 of the Code of
Virginia, in relation to motor vehicles. [H B 21]

Approved March 29, 1923.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section twenty-one hundred and forty-two of the Code of Vir-
ginia be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2142. Machines to be provided with brakes and
bells or other signals; lights to be displayed; regulating lights.—
Every machine shall be provided with a good and sufficient
brake, or brakes, and shall also be provided with a suitable bell,
horn, or other signal device.

Every motor vehicle operated or driven on the public high-
ways of the State, at any time when there is not sufficient day-
light to render clearly discernible a person, vehicle or other sub-
stantial object on the highway at a distance of two hundred
(200) feet ahead, shall be provided with lighting facilities of
sufficient power and so adjusted and operated as to enable the
operator or driver to proceed with safety to himself and other
users of the highways under all conditions of light, road and
weather; provided, however, that the following classes of
vehicles shall display under the above conditions not less than
the light next specified, to-wit:

(a) Motor vehicles, other than the specific classes herein-
after enumerated, two white or tinted lights, other than red, of
approximately equal candle power mounted on opposite sides
and visible from the front, and one red light visible from the
rear; provided however in case of accident such motor vehicle
may proceed with one light, either improvised or otherwise,
to the nearest point where repairs can be made.

(b) Motorcycles and tractors, one white or tinted light,
other than red, visible from the front, and one red light visible
from the rear;

(c) Side cars, one white light visible to the front;

(d) Standing motor vehicles, including all the above, at
least one whité¢ or tinted light, other than red, visible to the
front, and red to the rear, carried on the left of such vehicle;
except where such vehicles are standing in space designated as
parking space, or, if on highway, when such vehicles are well
out of the way of ordinary motor travel.

The light above required shall in all instances be of suffi-
cient strength to be clearly visible at a distance of at least two
hundred (200) feet from the direction in which they are re-
quired to be displayed.

In case of moving motor vehicles the numerals on the rear
registration marker shall be so illuminated as to be clearly
visible at a distance of not less than twenty-five (25) feet from
the rear. :

_ Every motor vehicle, and tractor when in use on a public
highway at any time when there is not sufficient daylight to
render clearly discernible a person, vehicle or other substantial
object on the highway at a distance of two hundred feet ahead,
shall have mounted on the right and left sides of the front
thereof a pair of lamps of approximately equal candle power,
and every motorcycle shall have mounted on the front thereof
one lamp. If said vehicles are so mechanically constructed,
governed or controlled that they cannot exceed a speed of fifteen
miles per hour they shall have front lamps capable of furnishing
light of sufficient candle power to render any substantial object
clearly discernible on a level highway at least fifty feet directly
ahead and at the same time at least seven feet to the right of the
axis of such vehicle for a distance of at least twenty-five feet. If
said vehicles can exceed a speed of fifteen miles per hour, then
they shall have front lamps capable of furnishing light of sufii-
cient candle power to render any substantial object clearly dis-
cernible on a level highway at least two hundred feet directly
ahead and at the same time at least seven feet to the right of
the axis of such vehicle for a distance of at least one hundred
feet; provided that no front lamp capable of furnishing more
than four candlepower light shall be used if equipped with a re-
fiector, unless so designed, equipped or mounted that no portion
of the beam of light when projected seventy-five feet or more
ahead of the lamps shall rise above a plane forty-two inches
_ higher than the parallel with the level surface on which the
vehicle stands; and, provided, further, that no electric bulb or
other lighting defice of a greater capacity than thirty-two
candlepower shall be used, no matter how the same may be
shaded, covered or obscured. |

No motor vehicle of any kind shall at any time, whether in
use or not in use, be equipped with any lamp or acetylene or
other similar burner without any glass or with a plain glass
front, behind which there is an electric bulb or other lighting
defice of a greater capacity than four candle power, unless such
bulb or acetylene or other similar burner itself be so designed,
constructed and used as to prevent glare.

Every commercial motor vehicle so constructed or loaded
that the operator is prevented from having a free and unob-
structed view of the highway immediately to the rear and at
the sides of the same, shall be equipped with a mirror or re-
flector attached to and so located and adjusted on such vehicle
as to give the operator thereof a clear reflected view of the
highway to the rear of such vehicle. It shall be the duty of
the owner of such motor vehicle to equip the same with a mirror
or reflector as aforesaid and see that the same is maintained on
such vehicle, and of the operator thereof at all times to see that
such mirror or reflector is kept in proper adjustment as afore-
Said.

In order that this section may be operative without hard-
ship to the owners and operators of motor vehicles, the secretary
of the Commonwealth is hereby especially authorized to pass
upon any lighting device and upon the equipment of any car,
and shall for this purpose examine all lighting devices sub-
mitted to him; and if, in his judgment, such lighting devices,
when properly applied to a motor vehicle licensed under the
authority of this chapter, shall conform to the provisions of
this section, he shall issue a certificate to the manufacturer,
Owner, or user of such device, as the case may be, that the same
is in compliance with this section.

It shall be unlawful for anyone to use, sell or have in his
possession any headlight or other lighting device designed for
- use on motor vehicles on the public highways of this State con-
trary to this section.

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Any person who shall turn all or any of his motor vehicle
lights off for the purpose of avoiding arrest or identification
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction,
subject to a penalty of one hundred dollars ($100.00), or im-
prisonment for a period not to exceed ninety days, or both fine
and imprisonment.