Vehicle lights — Utah Permit Test

Every Utah vehicle except a motorcycle must have at least two working headlights, white in color, that shine 350 feet on high beam and 100 feet on low beam.

The distances are what a headlight has to reach before it is legal. Below them you are outdriving your own lights.

HEADLIGHTS—All vehicles, except motorcycles, must have at least two operational headlights (one on each side), that are white in color and can shine 350 feet on high and 100 feet on low beams.

All Utah vehicles must have a high-beam indicator light.

The indicator is the only way a driver knows the high beams are on, which is the whole reason they get left on.

All vehicles must have a high-beam indicator light.

A Utah vehicle must have two red tail and stop lights mounted on the rear, visible from 500 feet to the rear in regular sunlight.

Five hundred feet in daylight is what gives the driver behind time to react to your brakes.

TAIL AND STOP LIGHTS—Vehicles must have two red tail/stop lights mounted on the rear. The lights must be visible from 500 feet to the rear in regular sunlight.

Utah turn signals must be visible from 100 feet in normal sunlight, with two lights on the rear and two on the front.

A hundred feet is enough at city speeds, which is where most turns are made and most signals are missed.

These lights must be visible from 100 feet in normal sunlight.

A Utah vehicle must have one white license plate light mounted on the rear so that the license number can be read from at least 50 feet.

The plate is how a vehicle is identified after a crash or a hit and run, and at night the light is the only way to read it.

LICENSE PLATE LIGHT—All vehicles will have one white light mounted on the rear of the vehicle so that the license number may be read at a distance of at least 50 feet.

Red or blue lights visible from the front of a Utah vehicle may not be used except by emergency, school, snow removal, or other authorized vehicles.

Those colors are how a driver knows to pull over. Anybody else showing them is pretending to be the police.

RED OR BLUE LIGHTS VISIBLE FROM THE FRONT—Red or blue lights visible from the front of a vehicle may not be used except by emergency, school, snow removal, or other authorized vehicles.

Only authorized emergency vehicles in Utah may be equipped with sirens, whistles, or bells.

A siren means get out of the way. Fitting one to an ordinary car makes that instruction meaningless.

SIRENS, WHISTLES, AND BELLS—Only authorized emergency vehicles may be equipped with sirens, whistles, or bells.

A Utah motor vehicle must have one functioning horn that can be heard under normal conditions from at least 200 feet.

Two hundred feet is far enough to warn somebody before it is too late for them to do anything about it.

HORN—All motor vehicles must have one functioning horn which must be heard under normal conditions from a distance of no less than 200 feet.

How far must a Utah headlight shine on high beam?

350 feet. The distances are what a headlight has to reach before it is legal. Below them you are outdriving your own lights. Utah Driver Handbook 2026-2027, p.91: “HEADLIGHTS—All vehicles, except motorcycles, must have at least two operational headlights (one on each side), that are white in color and can shine 350 feet on high and 100 feet on low beams.”