Lester wrote: "PFFFT.. Federal regs require that you have a horn. How
you activate the horn is of no concern to them.".
When I was a young cop in Southern Califiornia, I pulled a car over in
the early morning hours for speed, and was just going to give him a
warning until he came out of the car screaming and calling me every name
in the book. So, not only did I give him a ticket for speeding, but
started going over the car for every mechanical violation I could find.
I probably had about 20, and found that the horn did not work. Going
through my "cheat sheet" of vehicle code summaries, I could find nothing
about a horn. So, I got on the radio and asked the sergeant what code
section covered no horn.
"Evans, there is NO such section. The code doesn't require a horn."
Ooops, I was a little non-plused.
Having said that, Federal (DOT) do not apply to vehicles on the rioad,
only to vehicle manufacture and importation. In 1998, California
amended the vehicle code to require a horn that can be heard for 200' on
all vehicles manufactured with one. It does prohibit horns that are
loud or harsh, which may eliminate feline horns.
Buster Evans
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