Veh. Code, § 24616 · Article 3. Rear Lighting Equipment
Veh. Code, § 24616
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A motor vehicle may be equipped with one or two rear-facing auxiliary lamps. For the purposes of this section, a rear-facing auxiliary lamp is a lamp that is mounted on the vehicle facing rearward. That lamp shall meet the photometric and performance requirements of the Society of Automotive Engineers Standard J1424 for cargo lamps.
(b) A rear-facing auxiliary lamp may project only a white light, with the main cone of light projecting both rearward and downward. The main cone of light shall illuminate the road surface or ground immediately rearward of a line parallel to the rear of the vehicle for a distance not greater than 50 feet. The main cone of light may not project to the front or sides of the vehicle.
(c) A rear-facing auxiliary lamp may be activated only when the vehicle is stopped. A vehicle equipped with a rear-facing auxiliary lamp shall also be equipped with a system that allows activation of the lamp only when the vehicle is in the “park” setting, if the vehicle is equipped with an automatic transmission, or in the “neutral” setting with the parking brake engaged, if the vehicle is equipped with a manual transmission.
(d) A vehicle equipped with a rear-facing auxiliary lamp may have an activation switch accessible to the operator from the rear of the vehicle.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 739, Sec. 20. Effective January 1, 2002.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=24616.
- Text hash
- sha256 b0968a318a904e91608c905bf5b1af82cf1edeb74581ea4bf1012ac5b51529ef
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.