Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 347 - Equipment of vehicles.
347.29 - Display of warning devices for certain vehicles when standing on highway.

347.29 Display of warning devices for certain vehicles when standing on highway.
(1) Except as provided in s. 347.26 (11) (b), whenever any motor truck, motor bus, trailer or semitrailer more than 80 inches in width or truck tractor or road tractor is left standing, whether attended or unattended, during hours of darkness upon the traveled portion of any highway or the shoulder adjacent thereto outside the corporate limits of a city or village, the operator of such vehicle shall display the following warning devices upon the highway during the entire time the vehicle is so left standing and such devices shall be placed in the following order:
(a) A lighted fusee or lighted red electric lantern or a red emergency reflector shall immediately be placed at the traffic side of the vehicle in the direction of the nearest approaching traffic. If a lighted fusee was so placed, the driver shall replace such fusee with a lighted pot torch or lighted red electric lantern or a red emergency reflector after the driver has placed the warning devices specified in pars. (b) and (c) and before the fusee burns out.
(b) A lighted pot torch or lighted red electric lantern or a red emergency reflector shall be placed approximately 100 feet from the standing vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by such vehicle and toward traffic approaching in that lane.
(c) One lighted pot torch or lighted red electric lantern or a red emergency reflector shall be placed approximately 100 feet from the standing vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by such vehicle and in the opposite direction from the warning device placed in accordance with par. (b).
(2) Whenever any vehicle referred to in this section is left standing, whether attended or unattended, within 500 feet of a curve, hillcrest or other obstruction to view, the warning signal in that direction shall be so placed as to afford ample warning to other users of the highway, but in no case less than 100 feet nor more than 500 feet from the standing vehicle.
(3) Whenever any vehicle of a type referred to in this section is left standing, whether attended or unattended, upon any roadway of a divided highway during hours of darkness, the appropriate warning devices prescribed in subs. (1) and (4) shall be placed as follows:
(a) One shall be placed at a distance of approximately 200 feet from the vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by the standing vehicle and in the direction of traffic approaching in that lane;
(b) One shall be placed at a distance of approximately 100 feet from the vehicle in the center of the lane occupied by the vehicle and in the direction of traffic approaching in that lane;
(c) One shall be placed at the traffic side of the vehicle and approximately 10 feet from the vehicle in the direction of the nearest approaching traffic.
(4) No operator of a motor vehicle used in the transportation of explosives, or of a cargo tank truck used for the transportation of any flammable liquid or compressed flammable gas shall use any flame-producing emergency signal for protecting any such vehicle. In lieu thereof, red electric lanterns or red emergency reflectors shall be used, the placement of which shall be in the same order and manner as prescribed in subs. (1) to (3).
(5) Whenever any vehicle of a type referred to in this section is left standing at any place mentioned in this section at times other than during hours of darkness, the operator of the vehicle shall display 2 red flags upon the roadway in the lane of traffic occupied by the standing vehicle, one at a distance of approximately 100 feet in advance of the vehicle and one at a distance of approximately 100 feet to the rear of the vehicle.
(6) The flares, fusees, red electric lanterns, red emergency reflectors and flags to be displayed as required in this section shall conform with the requirements of s. 347.28.
(7) This section does not apply to vehicles standing on a highway in compliance with traffic regulations or the directions of a traffic officer or official traffic sign or signal.
History: 1991 a. 316.
A flag warning under sub. (5) is not applicable in a city. Northland Insurance Co. v. Avis Rent-A-Car, 62 Wis. 2d 643, 215 N.W.2d 439 (1974).

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