---
type: "Bill"
title: "Emergency vehicles, privately owned volunteer; exemptions and requirements."
description: "Clarifies that the current limit of no more than two flashing or steady-burning red or red and white combination warning lights applies to light units rather than individual lights on a vehicle owned by a member of a fire department, volunteer fire company, or volunteer EMS agency or a police chaplain."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1785"
citation: "Virginia HB 1785 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Emergency Services and Vehicles", "Motor Vehicles"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Robert B. Bell"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 17
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-09"
last_action: "2017-02-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ffb4dc59-71cd-4524-b3be-2abc8adfce6d"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1785"
source_hash: "7d9e20df581e8c1a60fb6e46736d779e6a4c9bb4ee483c5e938ea0272b31bf5e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1785 (2017) — Emergency vehicles, privately owned volunteer; exemptions and requirements.

Clarifies that the current limit of no more than two flashing or steady-burning red or red and white combination warning lights applies to light units rather than individual lights on a vehicle owned by a member of a fire department, volunteer fire company, or volunteer EMS agency or a police chaplain.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0244)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0244)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1785ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1785ER)
3. **House: Committee substitute printed 17104560D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1785H1)
4. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100933D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1785)

## Votes

- Reported from Transportation — **12–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **7–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Transportation with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Robert B. Bell — primary (person)
- Sam Rasoul — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100933D `introduction`
- **2017-01-09** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-13** Assigned Transportation sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-27** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-30** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-01-30** Committee substitute agreed to 17104560D-H1
- **2017-01-30** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1785H1
- **2017-01-31** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-01** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-01** Referred to Committee on Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-13** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Enrolled
- **2017-02-15** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-17** Signed by President
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/17/17
- **2017-02-17** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 24, 2017
- **2017-02-23** Approved by Governor-Chapter 244 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ffb4dc59-71cd-4524-b3be-2abc8adfce6d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).