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Here is a question for the attorneys! Officer is parked along side of the roadway, partially on the improved shoulder at night with no lights on running stationary radar. Vehicle approaches from the front and "flashes" his high beams. Officer conducts stop for violation of 547.333.

My issue is this: The officer is stationary, off the main traveled portion of the roadway and the statute seems to be intended for drivers to turn off upper portion on approaching another vehicle traveling on the roadway.

Also, flashing them is not the same as traveling with them on continuously on approaching.

Good stop, or questionable. Can email me at rscifres@yoakumcounty.org

Thanks,
Ray
 
Posts: 17 | Location: Plains, TX | Registered: August 14, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Doesn't this case answer this situation?: State v. Montano, 2013 WL 3518202 at *3 (Tex. App.--Corpus Christi 2013, no pet.) (officer parked on side of road is not "oncoming vehicle" under 547.333(c)(1)(B) -- though that guy was also perpendicular to roadway (but not sure that matters)).

At any rate, is "flashing" high beams the same thing as "selecting" high beams (as the statute requires)? I think that would be a difficult argument to make.
 
Posts: 143 | Location: Fort Worth | Registered: August 08, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I have noticed drivers flashing their high beams at approaching vehicles that don't have their headlights lit when they should be lit (dark or deep dusk) as a warning that the other driver's vehicle lights aren't on.
 
Posts: 674 | Location: Austin, Texas, United States | Registered: March 28, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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"Section 547.333 contains no definition of the word "select." The general definition of the word does not contain a temporal element. . . However, we need not decide this issue because we conclude that, at the very least, Officer Petty's belief that appellant's conduct violated the statute was reasonable. . . . There is no dispute that
appellant briefly engaged his high beams within three hundred feet of the rear of another vehicle. Absent a definition or case law clearly indicating that the term "select" as used in section 547.333(c)(2) is limited to the permanent selection of high beams, Officer Petty's belief
that appellant's conduct violated the statute was
objectively reasonable."

McCurtain v. State 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 7544
 
Posts: 261 | Location: Lampasas, Texas, USA | Registered: November 29, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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