ok, whats the deal guys. is it legal? is it not legal? on 78, i get a lot of idiots driving at night with their high beams on. don't matter who is in front of them or who is oncoming. i always flash them. they annoy the fuck outta me and probably everyone else on the highway.
on regular roads, people "forget" that they have them on and i have to remind them by flashing... once again.
at night when deer are crossing the road and another motorist can't really see them, i flash him to warn him of the danger

and yes, any time there is a speed trap, i will flash oncoming traffic.

so, whats legal and whats not. bigsaint, do you know of the statute that deals with this? do you guys pull anyone over for it?

Skid, good topic. Back in the day, when I was much younger, we used to run a stationary radar car and a roaming car. The roaming car would stop and ticket those that flashed to warn of the radar car. NJ has 2 seperate violations... flashing lights prohibited and improper use of multiple beam headlamps. While in theory I seriously doubt either violation was designed for what we wrote, we never did loose a single case in court. Basically, I think you would be very safe to flash for anything short of a radar post. In most cases you would be safe to flash as a warning of a radar post also but it really depends on the cop IMO. My personal view is that I should hide better if I really want to write ( never the case anymore).

Not a LEO, just a jailhouse lawyer that has received more than his fair share of tickets.

The Federal Department of Transportation has ruled it legal for motorists to flash their high beams to alert other motorists of potential danger.

Since the police are there to serve and protect, they must be monitoring some type of potentially dangerous condition/situation.

Road users in France regularly flash to warn of police traps ahead... and it's being adopted more & more over here too, which is great. I haven't heard of anyone being 'done' for it but I guess it could fall under the perverting the course of justice umbrella or something similar.

Discourteous high beam abusers are a PIA I agree, especially at this time of year... as are mal-adjusted lights which often blind unintentionally, but I've also found the recent adoption of HIDs can also often be quite blinding.

Thankfully we haven't adopted those ludicrous 'modulating' light systems over here although we have been forced to use daylight running lights since all new machines come hard wired since 2005.... which is damned-right stupid, and an infringement of personal liberty IYAM.

who cares if its legal,, is it legal for you to run into a disarmed tree at 90 mph because you cant see? my HIDs are 12K temperature and are 3 times brighter than any stock high beam out there,, im gonna see what im doing,, PLUS when i have the tinted shield down,, there is plenty of visibility.. comes down to what more important to you,, safely seeing where your going,, or the possibility of a fix it ticket.. which is unheard of here in NY anyways..

You do dip your beam to oncoming, or when approaching someone, don't you?