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Oregon Revised Statutes

Or. Rev. Stat. § 811.520 (2026)

Unlawful use or failure to use lights; penalty

✓ current as of May 2026
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      811.520 Unlawful use or failure to use lights; penalty. (1) A person commits the offense of unlawful use or failure to use lights if the person does any of the following:

      (a) Drives or moves on any highway any vehicle at a time when vehicle lighting is required to be operated or is prohibited from being operated under ORS 811.515 and operates or fails to operate lighting equipment as required under ORS 811.515.

      (b) Owns a vehicle or combination of vehicles and causes or knowingly permits the vehicle or combination of vehicles to be driven or moved on any highway at a time when ORS 811.515 requires or prohibits the operation of vehicle lighting equipment without compliance with the requirements under ORS 811.515.

      (c) Drives any vehicle in a funeral procession without using the low beam headlights.

      (2) The application of this section is subject to the exemptions from this section established under ORS 811.525.

      (3) The offense described in this section, unlawful use of or failure to use lights, is a Class B traffic violation, except that violation of ORS 811.515 (3), (4), (13) or (17) or subsection (1)(c) of this section is a Class D traffic violation. [1983 c.338 §659; 1985 c.16 §323; 1991 c.482 §21; 1995 c.383 §21]

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 1987–1997 · leading case: State v. Taylor, 950 P.2d 930 (Or. Ct. App. 1997).
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State v. Taylor, 950 P.2d 930 (Or. Ct. App. 1997). “515; ORS 811.520. He stopped the car for the infraction.”
State v. Noble, 842 P.2d 780 (Or. 1992). “ORS 811.520. A bicycle operating on a highway is a vehicle.”
State v. Bowen, 746 P.2d 249 (Or. Ct. App. 1987). “[1] The authority to stop the automobile for driving without headlights, ORS 811.520, is found in ORS 810.410(3)(b), which does not authorize a frisk of the person stopped for weapons.”
State v. Matthews, 868 P.2d 14 (Or. Ct. App. 1994). · cites it 2× “That observation provided a reasonable basis for Frye to believe that defendant was operating his vehicle in violation of ORS 811.520, a Class B infraction. 2 That is all that is necessary to justify a vehicle stop under ORS 810.”
Hayes v. Motor Vehs. Div., 833 P.2d 1329 (Or. Ct. App. 1992). “ORS 811.520. An officer has authority to stop a vehicle for a traffic infraction committed in his presence.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.