Senate Bill No. 491
(By Senator Rowe)
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[Introduced February 4, 2002; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section ten, article seventeen, chapter
seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to permitting police
officers to require reporting slips from operators of motor
vehicles carrying loads; specifying the information
necessarily contained on the reporting slips; designating
those responsible for providing the slips; providing that it
is a misdemeanor to submit a false, misleading or
substantially inaccurate reporting slip; and providing that
the commissioner of motor vehicles shall propose legislative
rules defining the sum and substance of the reporting slips
required.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten, article seventeen, chapter seventeen-c of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 17. SIZE, WEIGHT AND LOAD.
§17C-17-10. Officers may weigh, measure, etc., vehicles and
require removal or rearrangement of excess loads.
(a) Any police officer or employee of the department of
highways designated by the commissioner of highways as a member of
an official weighing crew may require the driver of any vehicle or
combination of vehicles on any highway to stop and submit such
vehicle or combination of vehicles to a weighing with portable or
stationary weighing devices or submit such vehicle or combination
of vehicles to a measuring or to any other examination necessary to
determine if such vehicle or combination of vehicles is in
violation of any of the provisions of this article, and may require
that such vehicle or combination of vehicles be driven to the
nearest weighing device, but only if such weighing device is within
two miles of the place where the vehicle or combination of vehicles
is stopped.
No police officer or member of an official weighing crew may
stop a vehicle or combination of vehicles for weighing unless a
portable or stationary weighing device is actually present at the
location where, and at the time, the vehicle or combination of
vehicles is stopped or unless the vehicle or combination of
vehicles is escorted immediately after being stopped to a portable
or stationary weighing device. In no case may a vehicle or combination of vehicles be detained more than one hour from the
time the same is stopped for weighing unless the vehicle or
combination of vehicles is impounded for a violation in accordance
with the provisions of section fourteen of this article: Provided,
That, every driver of a vehicle containing a load subject to the
provisions of this article shall, upon request by a state police
officer or any police officer of the department of highways,
produce a reporting slip containing required information relative
to the load being hauled. The reporting slip shall specify the
time and date the vehicle was loaded, the location where the load
was made, the name of the loading facilities and operators
responsible for seeing that the load was properly conducted, the
gross weight of the load, the materials or items of which the load
is comprised, including the unit weight for individual items and
the total number thereof. Items of a separate class or character
shall be specified in plain and concise terms setting forth their
size, weight, purpose and the materials of which they are
comprised. In the event any reporting slip, as required hereunder,
is found to be false, misleading or substantially inaccurate, an
officer may issue a citation to the owner, operator, or lessee of
the vehicle involved. The citation may also name the owner of any
loading facility responsible for the load at issue. An offense
under this section is a misdemeanor punishable in accordance with
the provisions of article eighteen of this chapter. The commissioner shall propose legislative rules setting forth the form
and substance of the reporting slips required hereunder.
(b) Whenever an officer or a member of an official weighing
crew determines that a vehicle or combination of vehicles is in
violation of any of the provisions of this article, he or she may
require the driver to stop such vehicle or combination of vehicles
in a suitable place and to remain standing until such vehicle or
combination of vehicles is brought into conformity with the
provisions violated.
In the case of a weight violation all material unloaded shall
be cared for by the owner, lessee or borrower of such vehicle or
combination of vehicles at the risk of such owner, lessee or
borrower: Provided, That no criminal charge shall be preferred
against any driver, operator or owner of a vehicle when a
rearrangement of the load upon the vehicle, without removal
therefrom, reduces the axle loads of said vehicle to such limit as
is permitted under this chapter.
(c) Any driver of a vehicle or combination of vehicles who
fails or refuses to comply with any requirement or provision of
this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
permit police officers to require reporting slips from operators of motor vehicles
carrying loads. The bill specifies the information that
necessarily must be contained on the reporting slips. It also
designates those responsible for providing the slips while
providing that it is a misdemeanor to submit a false, misleading or
substantially inaccurate reporting slip. Finally, it provides that
the commissioner of motor vehicles shall propose legislative rules
defining the sum and substance of the reporting slips required.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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