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Vehicle headlights on when wipers are in use (R.C. 4511.093 and 4513.03; Section 756.15).

Continuing law generally requires every vehicle operated on a street or highway within Ohio to display lighted lights and illuminating devices as required by law during the time from sunset to sunrise and at any other time when, because of insufficient natural light or unfavorable atmospheric conditions, persons, vehicles, and substantial objects on the highway are not discernible at a distance of 1,000 feet ahead.

The act expands these requirements to include the use of lighted lights and illuminating devices when the windshield wipers of the vehicle are in use because of precipitation on the windshield, but provides for secondary enforcement of this new requirement. What this means is that notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a law enforcement officer cannot cause the operator of a motor vehicle being operated upon a street or highway within this state to stop the vehicle solely because the officer observes that the vehicle is or was being operated with its windshield wipers in use due to the presence of precipitation on the windshield without its lights and illuminating devices being lighted or for the sole purpose of issuing a ticket for such a violation, or causing the arrest of or commencing a prosecution of a person for such a violation.

The act provides further that for the six-month period commencing on the act's general effective date, no law enforcement officer may issue to any motor vehicle operator a ticket for a violation of the new requirement, or cause the arrest of or commence a prosecution of a person for such a violation. Instead, during that period the law enforcement officer is required to issue to such an operator a written warning, informing the operator of the existence of the new requirement and that at the end of that six-month period, a law enforcement officer who observes a motor vehicle operator who has committed or is committing a violation of the new requirement will be authorized to issue a ticket to that operator for that violation or to cause the arrest of or commence a prosecution of such an operator for that violation.