337.16 NUMBER OF LIGHTS; LIMITATIONS ON FLASHING, OSCILLATING OR ROTATING LIGHTS.
(a) Whenever a motor vehicle equipped with headlights also is equipped with any auxiliary lights or spotlight or any other light on the front thereof projecting a beam of an intensity greater than 300 candle power, not more than a total of five of any such lights on the front of a vehicle shall be lighted at any one time when the vehicle is upon a highway.
(b) Any lighted light or illuminating device upon a motor vehicle, other than headlights, spotlights, signal lights or auxiliary driving lights, that projects a beam of light of an intensity greater than 300 candle power, shall be so directed that no part of the beam will strike the level of the roadway on which the vehicle stands at a distance of more than seventy-five feet from the vehicle.
(c) (1) Flashing lights are prohibited on motor vehicles, except as a means for indicating a right or a left turn, or in the presence of a vehicular traffic hazard requiring unusual care in approaching, or overtaking or passing. This prohibition does not apply to emergency vehicles, road service vehicles servicing or towing a disabled vehicle, traffic line stripers, snow plows, rural mail delivery vehicles, vehicles transporting preschool children as provided in Ohio R.C. 4513.182, Ohio Department of Transportation maintenance vehicles, funeral hearses, funeral escort vehicles and similar equipment operated by the Department or local authorities, which shall be equipped with and display, when used on a street or highway for the special purpose necessitating such lights, a flashing, oscillating or rotating amber light, but shall not display a flashing, oscillating or rotating light of any other color, nor to vehicles or machinery permitted by Section 337.10 to have a flashing red light.
(2) When used on a street or highway, farm machinery and vehicles escorting farm machinery may be equipped with and display a flashing, oscillating, or rotating amber light, and the prohibition contained in subsection (c)(1) hereof does not apply to such machinery or vehicles. Farm machinery also may display the lights described in Section 337.10.
(d) Except a person operating a public safety vehicle, as defined in Section 301.27, or a school bus, no person shall operate, move or park upon or permit to stand within the right of way of any public street or highway any vehicle or equipment that is equipped with and displaying a flashing red or a flashing combination red and white light, or an oscillating or rotating red light, or a combination red and white oscillating or rotating light; and except a public law enforcement officer, or other person sworn to enforce the criminal and traffic laws of the State or Municipality, operating a public safety vehicle when on duty, no person shall operate, move or park upon, or permit to stand within the right of way of any street or highway any vehicle or equipment that is equipped with, or upon which is mounted, and displaying a flashing blue or a flashing combination blue and white light, or an oscillating or rotating blue light, or a combination blue and white oscillating or rotating light.
(e) This section does not prohibit the use of warning lights required by law or the simultaneous flashing of turn signals on disabled vehicles or on vehicles being operated in unfavorable atmospheric conditions in order to enhance their visibility. This section also does not prohibit the simultaneous flashing of turn signals or warning lights either on farm machinery or vehicles escorting farm machinery, when used on a street or highway.
(f) Whoever violates this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor on a first offense; on a second offense within one year after the first offense, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree; on each subsequent offense within one year after the first offense, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.
(ORC 4513.17)