§ 8-1745 — Display of vehicular hazard warning signal lamps and warning devices by certain stopped or disabled vehicles

(a) Whenever any truck, bus, truck-tractor, trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer eighty (80) inches or more in overall width or thirty (30) feet or more in overall length is stopped upon a roadway or adjacent shoulder, the driver immediately shall actuate vehicular hazard warning signal lamps meeting the requirements of K.S.A. 8-1722. Such lights need not be displayed by a vehicle parked lawfully in an urban district, or stopped lawfully to receive or discharge passengers, or stopped to avoid conflict with other traffic or to comply with the directions of a police officer or an official traffic-control device, or while the devices specified in subsections (b) to (h) are in place.
(b) Whenever any vehicle of a type referred to in subsection (a) is disabled, or stopped for more than ten (10) minutes, upon a roadway outside of an urban district at any time when lighted lamps are required, the driver of such vehicle shall display the following warning devices, except as provided in subsection (c):
(1) A lighted fusee, a lighted red electric lantern or a portable red emergency reflector shall immediately be placed at the traffic side of the vehicle in the direction of the nearest approaching traffic.
(2) As soon thereafter as possible but in any event within the burning period of the fusee, the driver shall place three (3) liquid-burning flares, or three (3) lighted red electric lanterns, or three (3) portable red emergency reflectors on the roadway in the following order:
(i) One (1) approximately one hundred (100) feet from the disabled vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by such vehicle and toward traffic approaching in that lane.
(ii) One (1) approximately one hundred (100) feet in the opposite direction from the disabled vehicle and in the center of the traffic lane occupied by such vehicle.
(iii) One (1) at the traffic side of the disabled vehicle not less than ten (10) feet rearward or forward thereof in the direction of the nearest approaching traffic. If a lighted red electric lantern or a red portable emergency reflector has been placed at the traffic side of the vehicle in accordance with paragraph (1) of this subsection, it may be used for this purpose.
(c) Whenever any vehicle referred to in this section is disabled, or stopped for more than ten (10) minutes, within five hundred (500) feet of a curve, hillcrest or other obstruction to view, the warning device in that direction shall be so placed as to afford ample warning to other users of the highway, but in no case less than one hundred (100) feet nor more than five hundred (500) feet from the disabled vehicle.
(d) Whenever any vehicle of a type referred to in this section is disabled, or stopped for more than ten (10) minutes, upon any roadway of a divided highway during the time lighted lamps are required, the appropriate warning devices prescribed in subsections (b) and (e) shall be placed as follows: One (1) at a distance of approximately two hundred (200) feet from the vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by the stopped vehicle and in the direction of traffic approaching in that lane; one (1) at a distance of approximately one hundred (100) feet from the vehicle, in the center of the lane occupied by the vehicle and in the direction of traffic approaching in that lane; one (1) at the traffic side of the vehicle and approximately ten (10) feet from the vehicle in the direction of the nearest approaching traffic.
(e) Whenever any motor vehicle used in the transportation of explosives or any cargo tank truck used for the transportation of any flammable liquid or compressed gas is disabled, or stopped for more than ten (10) minutes, at any time and place mentioned in subsection (b), (c) or (d), the driver of such vehicle shall immediately display red electric lanterns or portable red emergency reflectors in the same number and manner specified therein. Flares, fusees or signals produced by flame shall not be used as warning devices for vehicles of the type mentioned in this subsection nor for vehicles using compressed gas as a fuel.
(f) The warning devices described in subsections (b) to (e) need not be displayed where there is sufficient light to reveal persons and vehicles within a distance of one thousand (1,000) feet.
(g) Whenever any vehicle described in this section is disabled, or stopped for more than ten (10) minutes, upon a roadway outside of an urban district or upon the roadway of a divided highway at any time when lighted lamps are not required by K.S.A. 8-1703, the driver of the vehicle shall display two (2) red flags as follows:
(1) If traffic on the roadway moves in two (2) directions, one (1) flag shall be placed approximately one hundred (100) feet to the rear and one (1) flag approximately one hundred (100) feet in advance of the vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by such vehicle.
(2) Upon a one-way roadway, one (1) flag shall be placed approximately one hundred (100) feet and one (1) flag approximately two hundred (200) feet to the rear of the vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by such vehicle.
(h) When any vehicle described in this section is stopped entirely off the roadway and on an adjacent shoulder at any time and place hereinbefore mentioned, the warning devices shall be placed, as nearly as practicable, on the shoulder near the edge of the roadway.
(i) The flares, fusees, red electric lanterns, portable red emergency reflectors and flags to be displayed as required in this section shall conform with the requirements of K.S.A. 8-1744 applicable thereto.

Legislative History

L. 1974, ch. 33, § 8-1745; July 1.