§ 39-21-43 — Display of warning devices when vehicle disabled

1. Whenever any truck, bus, truck tractor, trailer, semitrailer, or pole trailer eighty inches
[20.32 decimeters] or more in overall width or thirty feet [91.44 decimeters] or more in
overall length is stopped upon a roadway or adjacent shoulder, the driver shall
immediately actuate vehicular hazard warning signal lamps meeting the requirements
of this chapter. The lamps 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 2 through 8
are in place.
2. Whenever any vehicle of a type referred to in subsection 1 is disabled, or stopped for
more than ten minutes, upon a roadway outside of an urban district at any time when
lighted lamps are required, the driver of the vehicle shall display the following warning
devices except as provided in subsection 3:
a. A lighted fusee, a lighted red electric lantern, or a portable red emergency
reflector must immediately be placed at the traffic side of the vehicle in the
direction of the nearest approaching traffic.
b. As soon thereafter as possible but in any event within the burning period of the
fusee (fifteen minutes), the driver shall place three liquid-burning flares (pot
torches), or three lighted red electric lanterns, or three portable red emergency
reflectors on the roadway in the following order:
(1) One, approximately one hundred feet [30.48 meters] from the disabled
vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by the vehicle and toward traffic
approaching in that lane.
(2) One, approximately one hundred feet [30.48 meters] in the opposite
direction from the disabled vehicle and in the center of the traffic lane
occupied by such vehicle.
(3) One at the traffic side of the disabled vehicle not less than ten feet [30.48
decimeters] 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, it may be used for this purpose.
3. Whenever any vehicle referred to in this section is disabled, or stopped for more than
ten minutes, within five hundred feet [152.4 meters] of a curve, hillcrest, or other
obstruction to view, the warning device in the direction must be so placed as to afford

ample warning to other users of the highway, but in no case less than one hundred
feet [30.48 meters] nor more than five hundred feet [152.4 meters] from the disabled
vehicle.
4. Whenever any vehicle of a type referred to in this section is disabled, or stopped for
more than ten minutes, upon any roadway of a divided highway during the time lighted
lamps are required, the appropriate warning devices prescribed in subsections 2 and 3
must be placed as follows: one at a distance of approximately two hundred feet [60.96
meters] 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 at a distance of approximately
one hundred feet [30.48 meters] from the vehicle, in the center of the lane occupied by
the vehicle and in the direction of traffic approaching in that lane; one at the traffic side
of the vehicle and approximately ten feet [30.48 decimeters] from the vehicle in the
direction of the nearest approaching traffic.
5. 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 minutes, at any time and place mentioned in
subsection 2, 3, or 4, the driver of the vehicle shall immediately display red electric
lanterns or portable red emergency reflectors in the same number and manner
specified in subsection 2, 3, or 4. Flares, fusees, or signals produced by flame may not
be used as warning devices for vehicles of the type mentioned in this subsection nor
for vehicles using compressed gas as a fuel.
6. The warning devices described in subsections 2 through 5 need not be displayed
where there is sufficient light to reveal persons and vehicles within a distance of one
thousand feet [304.8 meters].
7. Whenever any vehicle described in this section is disabled, or stopped for more than
ten 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 section 39-21-01
the driver of the vehicle shall display two red flags as follows:
a. If traffic on the roadway moves in two directions, one flag shall be placed
approximately one hundred feet [30.48 meters] to the rear and one flag
approximately one hundred feet [30.48 meters] in advance of the vehicle in the
center of the lane occupied by the vehicle.
b. Upon a one-way roadway, one flag must be placed approximately one hundred
feet [30.48 meters] and one flag approximately two hundred feet [60.96 meters] to
the rear of the vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by the vehicle.
8. When any vehicle described in this section is stopped entirely off the roadway and on
an adjacent shoulder at any time and place mentioned in this section, the warning
devices must be placed, as nearly as practicable, on the shoulder near the edge of the
roadway.
9. The flares, fusees, red electric lanterns, portable red emergency reflectors, and flags
to be displayed as required in this section must conform with the applicable
requirements of section 39-21-42.