Defenses to IL town overweight ticket

Boy things sure have changed over the years. I can remember a time when D.O.T. was the only one authorized to write an overweight ticket to a truck. City couldnt do it, County couldnt do it, and even State couldnt do it unless they were authorized by the D.O.T. except in States where the State Police were the D.O.T. In Ga, D.O.T. couldnt even check your logbook, had to be the Public Service Commission. Now seems like everybody can?LOL

 

Well you'really probably correct, between 83 and I 294, not being a truck route, but you're definitely wrong on the 2 towns that border Elmhurst by I 294 and North Ave. That would be Northlake and Stone Park.

 

Your right it is Stone Park and then Melrose to the east. By the time you blink your eye your through stone park.

And ya I know I'm correct on the route between 294 and 83. I used to drive for a company out of Elmhurst.

 

You talking about the us dot authorizing the state's?
The us dot doesn't do any enforcement of local laws. That is left up to the states to write their own requirements for officers

My former city has no commercial vehicle enforcement officers but they write overweight tickets based on axles. My present city had three cops who can inspect trucks but the entire force can pull any truck over and write tickets for all kinds of violations like lights and speeding.

 

Youre right, U.S. D.O.T. has nothing to do with local laws but back in the day, Local Authority had to have authority from the U.S. D.O.T. to enforce Federal Laws against trucks. For instance, in Georgia, local, county and state police had no authority to enforce Federal Weight Laws against a truck. It had to be done by that state's D.O.T., who was authorized to enforce Federal Laws against trucks. Sure if they had their own local weight laws, they could enforce them but not Federal Laws. Locals, County, and State there had to apply to the Federal Government to obtain authority to enforce Federal Truck Laws. Cobb County got their authority while I was living there several years ago. They and Dekalb County were the first County Police to get D.O.T. Authority, which meant they could enforce HOS Regs against trucks and all other Federal Laws pertaining to trucks.

 

Thats essentially correct, once its on your truck, you are responsible for it. Some Enforcement Officers carry it a little too far but what can you do? I think I would just follow Skateboards advise and throw yourself on the mercy of the court? Just explain to him you didnt have a chance to weigh it before you got caught? Trying to come up with lines that may or may not help might just try his patience and make it worse than it otherwise would have been? Who knows, if he dont drop it, he may at least cut the fine down a lot if he sees you are not trying to play him? Good Luck.

 

That's pretty much the way TN is. No local jurisdictions that I know of will write overweight tickets or any other of the DOT regulations. Around here they won't even hardly pull you over for speeding as they don't know how to deal with trucks. If they do think you are in violation of something, they can call a state trooper to handle the issue.

I had a car run under my trailer awhile back. The responding local city cop asked for my registration. When I showed him my cab card he threw a fit and thought I was trying to pull something over on him. We finally got it straightened out but it was because he had never seen a cab card before and thought it wasn't valid because it didn't look like a normal 4-wheeler registration.

 

Ran through one of those little Illinois towns some years back, I was empty about 34,000 pounds but the road was 30,000 pound limit. I only needed to get to the light up ahead about 4 more miles, no where to turn around anyway. Well this little busy body 4wheeler coming the other way turns on his highbeams and pulls into the suicide lane right in front of me to stop me. Then he calls the police. I ease on around him and keep going and he's jumping up and down next to his car taking my picture with his phone.

So I roll up to the light and it just turns green and I roll through it nice and smooth and straighten out on the main road, just then coming the other way is this sheriff cresting over the hill with full lights blazing and sirens and hooks a beech behind me and follows me for a couple miles but he can't pull me over because he can't prove I was on that road, and plus I wasn't doing anything wrong from what he could see.

 

Lack of intent is not a defense to a petty misdemeanor or a fine case (as opposed to crimes).