2021 Colorado Code
Title 42 - Vehicles and Traffic
Article 4 - Regulation of Vehicles and Traffic
Part 2 - Equipment
§ 42-4-230. Emergency Lighting Equipment - Who Must Carry

1. No motor vehicle carrying a truck license and weighing six thousand pounds or more and no passenger bus shall be operated over the highways of this state at any time without carrying in an accessible place inside or on the outside of the vehicle three bidirectional emergency reflective triangles of a type approved by the department, but the use of such equipment is not required in municipalities where there are street lights within not more than one hundred feet.
2. Whenever a motor vehicle referred to in subsection (1) of this section is stopped upon the traveled portion of a highway or the shoulder of a highway for any cause other than necessary traffic stops, the driver of the stopped motor vehicle shall immediately activate the vehicular hazard warning signal flashers and continue the flashing until the driver places the bidirectional emergency reflective triangles as directed in subsection (3) of this section.
3. Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, whenever a motor vehicle referred to in subsection (1) of this section is stopped upon the traveled portion of a highway or the shoulder of a highway for any cause other than necessary traffic stops, the driver shall, as soon as possible, but in any event within ten minutes, place the bidirectional emergency reflective triangles in the following manner:
   1. One at the traffic side of the stopped vehicle, within ten feet of the front or rear of the vehicle;
   2. One at a distance of approximately one hundred feet from the stopped vehicle in the center of the traffic lane or shoulder occupied by the vehicle and in the direction toward traffic approaching in that lane; and
   3. One at a distance of approximately one hundred feet from the stopped vehicle in the opposite direction from those placed in accordance with paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection (3) in the center of the traffic lane or shoulder occupied by the vehicle; or
   4. If the vehicle is stopped within five hundred feet of a curve, crest of a hill, or other obstruction to view, the driver shall place the emergency equipment required by this subsection (3) in the direction of the obstruction to view at a distance of one hundred feet to five hundred feet from the stopped vehicle so as to afford ample warning to other users of the highway; or
   5. If the vehicle is stopped upon the traveled portion or the shoulder of a divided or one-way highway, the driver shall place the emergency equipment required by this subsection (3), one at a distance of two hundred feet and one at a distance of one hundred feet in a direction toward approaching traffic in the center of the lane or shoulder occupied by the vehicle, and one at the traffic side of the vehicle within ten feet of the rear of the vehicle.

4. No motor vehicle operating as a tow truck, as defined in section 40-10.1-101 (21), C.R.S., at the scene of an accident shall move or attempt to move any wrecked vehicle without first complying with those sections of the law concerning emergency lighting.
5. Any person who violates any provision of this section commits a class B traffic infraction.

History. Source: L. 94: Entire title amended with relocations, p. 2265, § 1, effective January 1, 1995. L. 2013: (4) amended, (HB 13-1300), ch. 316, p. 1709, § 137, effective August 7.

This section is similar to former § 42-4-227 as it existed prior to 1994.

Annotator's note. Since § 42-4-230 is similar to § 42-4-227 as it existed prior to the 1994 amending of title 42 as enacted by SB 94-1, relevant cases construing that provision have been included in the annotations to this section.

Such statutes construed as giving reasonable time to comply with its requirements. Statutes requiring the operator of a vehicle which breaks down or stops on the paved portion of a highway to forthwith, or immediately, place or display torches or flares to warn oncoming traffic on the highway should be and generally are construed as giving the driver a reasonable time within which to comply with the statutory requirements. Anderson v. Hudspeth Pine, Inc., 299 F.2d 874 (10th Cir. 1962).

Negligence in failing to first place flare at side. Calnon v. Sorel, 108 Colo. 467 , 119 P.2d 615.

Lack of equipment not proximate cause of accident. The fact that the tractor and trailer were not equipped with all of the emergency equipment required by this section was not the proximate cause of the collision between a stopped truck and an automobile, if the driver of the truck had insufficient time to put out warning flares. Anderson v. Hudspeth Pine, Inc., 299 F.2d 874 (10th Cir. 1962).

Applied in Ackley v. Watson Bros. Transp. Co., 123 F. Supp. 649 (D. Colo. 1954 ).