Tail light tint sprays...

[Safety Steve]

Or worse yet, just to look cool!

I was at a store the other day when a guy drove up in a $40,000 truck with short mud flaps and the tinted lenses on the back of his truck.

I tried to be courteous (because thats what we do down here, lol) and give him heads up on his two violations and explain the law to him.

This idiot wanted to argue based on the fact he never has gotten stopped yet in the big city of Houston. I told him if he opened his mouth again he could drive back from Houston for court and argue his case before the Judge and the County Attorney as I was about to write him two tickets! He understood that! lol

Something is wrong when being "cool" outweighs being safe!


Be Safe.

[retdetsgt]

I never wrote many tickets, in fact I was usually at the bottom of the monthly list. But the ones I did write were mostly expired tags and equipment violations. Expired tags because Oregon is dirt cheap to register your car. Now it's about $35 a year and then it was $15. It's always been less than what it takes to fill the gas tank of your car. And like equipment violations, people that didn't bother to follow the law on stuff like that very often had warrants or at minimum, suspended licenses.

It's funny how excited some people get over "customized" crap on their cars. I stopped a guy once who had a red plastic cover over his license plate on his 1958 Corvette. You could only make out the plate letters and numbers if you were within about 25-30 feet of the car. I told him the covers were illegal and he politely explained it was a "show car". I politely told him that N. Williams Avenue was not a car show and he needed to take them off when driving on a public street or highway. I hadn't even thought about giving him a ticket until the next explosion from him about how that would ruin the appearance, etc. ad nauseum. He really went nuts when I not only gave him a ticket, but confiscated his red plastic covers. I didn't have to do the latter, I just liked pissing him off by that time....

If he'd have just removed them himself, he would have driven away with them inside his car and no citation.......

[Joeyd6]

In NY, tint on any lights (headlights, tail lights, corner markers, turn signals or hazards) is against the law.

[Safety Steve]

I never wrote many tickets, in fact I was usually at the bottom of the monthly list. But the ones I did write were mostly expired tags and equipment violations. Expired tags because Oregon is dirt cheap to register your car. Now it's about $35 a year and then it was $15. It's always been less than what it takes to fill the gas tank of your car. And like equipment violations, people that didn't bother to follow the law on stuff like that very often had warrants or at minimum, suspended licenses.

It's funny how excited some people get over "customized" crap on their cars. I stopped a guy once who had a red plastic cover over his license plate on his 1958 Corvette. You could only make out the plate letters and numbers if you were within about 25-30 feet of the car. I told him the covers were illegal and he politely explained it was a "show car". I politely told him that N. Williams Avenue was not a car show and he needed to take them off when driving on a public street or highway. I hadn't even thought about giving him a ticket until the next explosion from him about how that would ruin the appearance, etc. ad nauseum. He really went nuts when I not only gave him a ticket, but confiscated his red plastic covers. I didn't have to do the latter, I just liked pissing him off by that time....

If he'd have just removed them himself, he would have driven away with them inside his car and no citation.......

Thats good stuff! lol



Be Safe.

[greg72982]

It's funny how excited some people get over "customized" crap on their cars. I stopped a guy once who had a red plastic cover over his license plate on his 1958 Corvette. You could only make out the plate letters and numbers if you were within about 25-30 feet of the car. I told him the covers were illegal and he politely explained it was a "show car". I politely told him that N. Williams Avenue was not a car show and he needed to take them off when driving on a public street or highway. I hadn't even thought about giving him a ticket until the next explosion from him about how that would ruin the appearance, etc. ad nauseum. He really went nuts when I not only gave him a ticket, but confiscated his red plastic covers. I didn't have to do the latter, I just liked pissing him off by that time....

If he'd have just removed them himself, he would have driven away with them inside his car and no citation.......

I never understood that obsession. I've never looked at a car and said "Boy that plate on the back bumper really makes that car look like crap." I've said that about cars with front plates, but from an LE perspective front plates are great.

Around here the black tinted covers are fairly common. Personally I think they look stupid.

[retdetsgt]

Around here the black tinted covers are fairly common. Personally I think they look stupid.

I don't know if that's regional or the cops here are just intolerant of that, but you don't see a lot of it here. We have a lot of overcast days in the winter and a dark shaded cover makes it damn near impossible to read the plate.

On the other hand, there may be more of that in Portland, I rarely go there and in the little town I live in, the cops are all tail light chasers because they have little else to do. I doubt you could make it across town twice without being stopped for the slightest equipment violation. They have definitely improved my driving habits, I can tell you that!

[greg72982]

I don't know if that's regional or the cops here are just intolerant of that, but you don't see a lot of it here. We have a lot of overcast days in the winter and a dark shaded cover makes it damn near impossible to read the plate.

On the other hand, there may be more of that in Portland, I rarely go there and in the little town I live in, the cops are all tail light chasers because they have little else to do. I doubt you could make it across town twice without being stopped for the slightest equipment violation. They have definitely improved my driving habits, I can tell you that!

There is another illegal reason I've heard that those covers can come in handy for, but I won't say it in the open forum.

[retdetsgt]

There is another illegal reason I've heard that those covers can come in handy for, but I won't say it in the open forum.

I don't think it works well unless they are especially designed for that.

[G35 Mass]

I want to make the back of my car less visible at night and when stopping, increasing my chance of someone plowing into me.

[McNulty]

I worked a rear-end collision where a guy had applied this spray to his tail/brake lamp enclosures. It was daytime and not only did his lenses no longer reflect, they were no longer plainly visible. He braked for a stopped bus and was struck from the rear by another driver that was following him too close. I found them both contributing to the collision and he later told me that he ended up paying for the damage to his own vehicle because I found him partially at fault for the illegal vehicle modification.

Take what you want from that story.