SECTION 1. Chapter 90 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby  amended by inserting the following new section:-

“No person shall sell, or keep or offer for sale, or have in his possession, or under his control, or use, except for uses permitted under this section, a mobile infrared transmitter or any other device or mechanism, passive or active, used to preempt or change the signal given by a traffic light so as to give the right-of-way to the vehicle equipped with such device. This section shall not apply to any law-enforcement, fire-fighting, life-saving, or rescue vehicle or ambulance responding to an emergency call or operating in an emergency situation, nor shall any such law enforcement or emergency response personnel be prohibited from purchasing said devices for use in emergency response vehicles.

Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars and the registrar of motor vehicles shall suspend such operator’s license for a period of not less than thirty days.  A subsequent violation shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars and suspension of such license for a period of not less than ninety days. 

The presence of any such prohibited device or mechanism in or on a motor vehicle traveling upon a public way shall constitute prima facie evidence of a violation of this section. The Commonwealth shall not be required to prove that the device or mechanism in question was in operative condition or being operated at the time of said violation. Upon a conviction of a violation of this section said device or mechanism shall be confiscated by the commonwealth. Said device or mechanism so confiscated shall, by written authority of the court of jurisdiction, be forwarded by common carrier to the colonel of the state police, who upon receipt of the same, shall notify said court or justice thereof. Said colonel may sell or destroy the same, except that any device or mechanism may not be lawfully sold in the commonwealth shall be destroyed, and in the case of a sale, after paying the cost of forwarding the article, shall pay over the net proceeds to the commonwealth.”