Drivers of trucks found to be overweight can be issued summonses and/or have their rigs impounded under the authority the local police department now will have. Previously, only the State Police had the legal authority to pull over trucks and weigh them
By: John Tredrea
The state has decided to give the Hopewell Township Police Department the authority to pull over trucks and weigh them.
Drivers of trucks found to be overweight can be issued summonses and/or have their rigs impounded under the authority the local police department now will have. Previously, only the State Police had the legal authority to pull over trucks and weigh them.
"The deputy attorney general in the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice has just informed us that the New Jersey Division of Weights and Measures will certify truck scales for our local police force," Hopewell Township Deputy Mayor Jon Edwards and Mayor Marylou Ferrara said in a written statement Monday.
"As a result, our local police will now be able to weigh trucks when our police have ‘probable cause.’ At the moment, that means that we will be able to weigh trucks when trucks are speeding, when they have lights out, or other obvious infractions. Our township attorney has written a finding for us that outlines the circumstances under which ‘probable cause’ appears to apply. Trucks with bulging tires and other conditions apparently would fall under probable cause," they said.
Mr. Edwards and Ms. Ferrara said the Township Committee already has approved the purchase of scales for this effort. Township police officers also will be given training in use of the scales by State Police.
Lt. George Meyer of the township force said Monday that, "now the attorney general’s office has given the go-ahead, the process is in motion. Once we have the scales and our officers have been trained, we’ll be able to pull over trucks and weigh them if we have probable cause."
Lt. Meyer said he could not estimate how long it would be before township police would be able to pull over trucks for roadside weigh-ins.
Mayor Ferrara and Deputy Mayor Edwards also reported that township officials have received statistics summarizing truck citations for the past six years.
They noted "This significant increase in truck citations (see statistics below) by our local police … improves safety on our local roads. It comes at a time when truck traffic on these roads is down by as much as 40 percent (the result of the bans on interstate trucking and all trucking on Route 29) … making this increase in enforcement even more significant."
The annual breakdown of the number of citations issued to truckers since 1996 is as follows:
1996 85 truck citations;
1997 163 truck citations;
1998 185 truck citations;
1999 735 truck citations;
2000 1,122 truck citations;
And, 2001 717 truck citations (to date).
Mayor Ferrara and Deputy Mayor Edwards added that the township police hosted a truck enforcement training seminar this week. The training was conducted by the State Police. Fifty officers from the departments of Hopewell Township and nearby municipalities attended.