So i want your guys opinions on this and whether or not its fucked up. So i have a car where the headlights run all the time and i cant shut them off unless my car is in park. So even if its sunny and 1pm, my lights are always on. Anyways i recently noticed my driver daytime running light went out but ive been procrastinating about getting a new one since i figured it wasnt that big a of deal since my regular headlights worked at night, its just the one thats out during the day. Anyways so im driving down the road early this morning and i see a cop in the oncoming lane. He slows down after i pass him and does a U turn and gets behind me, eventually pulling me over. He said the reason for pulling me over was because my left headlight was out. I told him i was aware but asked if its really against the law since there are other cars on the road with no headlights at all during the day. He said that may be, but it is my job to make sure my car was functioning at 100% to the best of my knowledge and gave me a fix-it ticket to resolve it. I mean the cop was cool and all but he wasted a good chunk of my time over something real petty. What do you guys think? Why the fuck do you need headlights in the middle of the day anyways. Fucking newer technology always getting us in trouble.
Nah he didn't sound like a dick, if it starts down pouring heavily that's when you used your lights during the day, granted you could just turn on your night time lights. In the end a fix it ticket is just a we observed something wrong but we just want you to fix it rather than give you a ticket and you'd have to fix it to begin with and have a ticket as well. Cheers
What does your State's vehicle code say about DRL's and functionality when equipped? If it requires both to be operational, then the stop was valid. It's that simple. What jumps out at me is the 'early in the morning' line...depending on just HOW early, it may have qualified as a dawn period where the transportation codes require lights of some type to be on, in which case, they need to be functional. Broader question is whether your vehicle throws any codes if you just take the bulbs out of the DRL's, presuming they are separate bulbs/housings (in which case problem is solved as far as future stop potential goes)...just make sure to put them back in before the next vehicle inspection. None of my vehicles have those insipid things, although I do have optional driving lights that I can manually activate as long as the parking lights were engaged. More likely, it was the typical pretense stop. Yes, local agencies know a lot of things that give rise to such stops...some of the larger drug busts have come through pretense stops that had a valid basis FOR the stop but where a warrant would not otherwise have existed FOR the visual search that then gave rise to probable cause for a tear everything out search. Oh, and that actually pales by comparison to the stop I had the other day (warning) SOLELY for no front plate (two of my vehicles have no bracket and I am NOT about to deface a vehicle to install one). No other basis for the stop. Literally. And of course with the current computers they are using, they could also see a total of the warnings for the same thing, never mind they are for different vehicles. THAT is a waste of time...
I feel he served his purpose of helping your car feel better. What would you feel like if you had to go out and about in the sun with an eye-patch on like a blind peg-leg pirate?
Your car is weird. I've only seen bikes that always turn on the headlight when they're running. If your night beams both work, just turn those on in the daytime. Stay lit.
Most states laws are that you have working equipment. Not that you have working equipment only during a certain part of the day or only if other equipment works. He had every right to pull you over. Was taught that in high school drivers ed
get a friend you know that does mechinic work, or someone you know that knows someone that works in a body shop, just get em to write you a bill saying its fixed and the ticket will be dropped in court... ive done with with speeding, got my boy to write a bill saying my speedometer was broken and i had it fixed, ticket was dropped... and one tim with my g/f headlight ticket, bill saying it was fixed got it dropped...
Sounds to be like your just fishing for an excuse to hate on the police. It takes every bit of 5 minutes to replace the headlights in a car/truck. You'll be fine.
Really dude? Im actually an advocate of the police and can't stand douche bags with the "fuck the police" attitude..I said nothing negative about the cop who pulled me over other than i thought it was a waste of time to pull me over for a missing LED daytime running light when it's 10am with the sun shining. And its a newer car and i have no clue how to replace that shit. I should have never gotten a new car.
for someone that flies a flag symbolizing freedom from the government, you sure seem to be a statist. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They'll pull you over in the day too. Its the law. I highly doubt you were going to get the light fixed before sun down. Look at it as the cop was preventing you from getting a real ticket after dark. Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.