Connecticut Vehicles Permitted to Use Emergency Vehicle Lights
14-1(4)
(4)“Authorized emergency vehicle” means (A) a fire department vehicle, (B) a police vehicle or (C) a public service company or municipal department ambulance or emergency vehicle designated or authorized for use as an authorized emergency vehicle by the commissioner;
14-96q
(a) Any lighted lamp or illuminating device upon a motor vehicle, other than head lamps, spot lamps or auxiliary driving lamps, which projects a beam of light of an intensity greater than three hundred 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.
(b) No person shall drive or move any vehicle or equipment upon any highway with any lamp or device thereon displaying a red light visible from directly in front of the center thereof. The provisions of this subsection and subsection (c) shall not apply to authorized emergency and maintenance vehicles.
(c) Flashing lights are prohibited on motor vehicles other than school buses, except (1) as a means for indicating a right or left turn, (2) flashing blue lights used by members of volunteer or civil preparedness fire companies, as provided by subsection (b) of section 14-96p, (3) on certain emergency and maintenance vehicles by special permit from the commissioner, (4) flashing or revolving yellow lights on (A) wreckers registered pursuant to section 14-66, or (B) vehicles of carriers in rural mail-delivery service or vehicles transporting or escorting any vehicle or load or combinations of vehicles or vehicles and load which is or are either oversize or overweight, or both, and operated or traveling under a permit issued by the Commissioner of Transportation pursuant to section 14-270, (5) flashing red lights (A) on a motor vehicle accommodating fifteen or fewer handicapped students used only during the time such vehicle is stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging such handicapped students, (B) used by members of the fire police on a stationary vehicle as a warning signal during traffic directing operations at the scene of a fire, (C) on rescue vehicles, (D) used by chief executive officers of emergency medical service organizations as provided in subsection (a) of section 14-96p, (E) ambulances, as defined in section 19a-175, or (F) used by local fire marshals or directors of emergency management, (6) flashing green lights used by members of volunteer ambulance associations or companies as provided in subsection (c) of section 14-96p, or (7) flashing white lights or flashing lights of other colors specified by federal requirements for the manufacture of an ambulance used in conjunction with flashing red lights or flashing head lamps and a flashing amber light on an ambulance responding to an emergency call. The prohibitions in this section shall not prevent the operator of a motor vehicle who while traveling on a limited access divided highway, because of the grade, is unable to maintain the minimum speed of forty miles per hour, or who while traveling on any other highway is operating such motor vehicle at such slow speed as to obstruct or endanger following traffic, or the operator of a disabled vehicle stopped on a hazardous location on the highway, or in close proximity thereto, from flashing lights, installed on the vehicle primarily for other purposes, in any manner that the operator selects so as to indicate that such vehicle is traveling slowly, obstructing traffic or is disabled and is a hazard to be avoided. The commissioner is authorized, at such commissioner's discretion, to issue special permits for the use of flashing or revolving lights on emergency vehicles, on escort vehicles, on maintenance vehicles and on other vehicles that display lights for which a permit is required, in accordance with the provisions of subsection (a) of section 14-96p, provided any person, firm or corporation other than the state or any metropolitan district, town, city or borough shall pay an annual permit fee for each such vehicle, provided vehicles not registered in this state used for transporting or escorting any vehicle or load or combinations of vehicles or vehicles and load which is or are either oversize or overweight, or both, when operating under a permit issued by the Commissioner of Transportation pursuant to section 14-270, shall not require such permit. Such annual permit fee shall be twenty dollars. If the commissioner issues a special permit to any ambulance, such permit shall be issued at the time of registration and of each renewal of registration.
(d) Use of lamps and flashing lights except as authorized by this section shall be an infraction.