Senate Bill No. 697
(By Senators Tomblin, Mr. President, Helmick and Bowman)
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[Introduced February 23, 2004; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §24A-7-7 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to authorizing the public service
commission to delegate motor carrier inspector duties to
weight enforcement officers and vice versa.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24A-7-7 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. COMPLAINTS, DAMAGES AND VIOLATIONS.
§24A-7-7. Authority of motor carrier inspectors to enforce all
traffic rules as to commercial vehicles; use of radar
as evidence.
(a) The employees of the commission designated as motor
carrier inspectors have the same authority as law-enforcement
officers generally to enforce the provisions of chapter seventeen-c
of this code with respect to commercial motor vehicles owned or operated by motor carriers, exempt carriers or private commercial
carriers where vehicles have a gross vehicle weight rating of ten
thousand pounds or more.
The commission is authorized to delegate motor carrier
inspector duties to weight enforcement officers as it considers
appropriate, following successful training and certification of
individual officers, who shall then have the same authority as
motor carrier inspectors under this section. The commission is
also authorized to delegate weight enforcement duties to motor
carrier inspectors.
(b) The speed of a commercial motor vehicle owned or operated
by a motor carrier, exempt carrier or private commercial carrier
may be proved by evidence obtained by use of any device designed to
measure and indicate or record the speed of a moving object by
means of microwaves, when the evidence is obtained by employees of
the commission designated as motor carrier inspectors. The
evidence so obtained is prima facie evidence of the speed of the
vehicle.
(c) Motor carrier inspectors shall also perform a north
American standard safety inspection of each commercial motor
vehicle stopped for enforcement purposes pursuant to this section.
(d) Before exercising the provisions of this section, the
motor carrier inspectors shall receive adequate training.
(e) Nothing in this section affects the existing authority of law-enforcement officers not employed by the commission to enforce
the provisions of chapter seventeen-c of this code.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the public
service commission to delegate motor carrier inspector duties to
weight enforcement officers and vice versa.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)