RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The Virginia senate has passed a bill to ban drivers from installing blue headlights in their vehicles.
The proposal, which must still pass the House of Delegates, won nearly unanimous support, with just one Republican senator voting in opposition.
The bill from Senator Lionell Spruill (D-Chesapeake) was amended in committee, and would now ban drivers from making “aftermarket modifications” that make their headlights blue. Still, the bill contains an exception for headlights pre-installed by the manufacturer and approved by the DMV.
Blue headlights are sometimes favored by luxury car manufacturers because they can appear brighter than traditional, yellow-tinted halogen bulbs, however, they’re controversial, with a 2007 study finding that drivers “experience more discomfort when exposed to the bluer HID headlamps than when they are exposed to the yellower halogen headlamps.”
If the bill makes it into law, drivers would no longer be allowed to purchase blue LED bulbs from online retailers or install blue-tinted films to their headlights, two popular forms of modification.
