Is it Illegal to Drive With Your Dome Light On in Texas?

As I look back on my childhood, I realize that my parents might have told me a few little white lies. Some of those little fibs they told me, stuck with me through my teen and adult years. In fact, It was today that I learned an interesting fact having to do with turning on your dome light while driving.

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I remember it happening several times as a kid. We'd be going somewhere at night and I'd drop something in the back seat (usually food) and so I would turn the dome light on to see where it fell. It was almost immediate I would get the "turn that off, you're gonna get us pulled over" routine. So, I literally grew up thinking this was a heinous illegal act and that I could face some time in the slammer, or worse, grounded!

Is it illegal to drive with your dome light on in Texas?

The short answer is no. There is no law in the state of Texas that prohibits the use of interior lights while driving.

In fact, according to section 547.305 in the Texas Statutes Transportation Code, there is nothing that says using your interior lights, or dome light, while driving is illegal.

What the heck?

As I did some more research on this, I discovered an article written by KHOU in Houston where DPS Sgt. Stephen Woodard commented on the matter.

"Driving with your dome light on is not illegal, but it could cause some tempting distraction while traveling the roadway. It could also reduce your visibility while driving at night. The safe thing to do is just pull over in a well-lighted area or completely off the road to look for those items, read your map, and etc."

Well, there you have it. All this time I thought it was illegal to be rolling down the road with your dome light on. What's next? Am I going to find out the Easter Bunny isn't real?