Tag archive for Article V

We like to think police officers hold a higher value in society than traffic signs, but in reality they both share a common authority to regulate traffic. The human police officer is granted this authority in the Illinois Vehicle Code (625 ILCS 5/1-162). Traffic signs, officially called traffic control devices, also receive their authority to control traffic in the IVC (625 ILCS 5/1-154). Traffic control devices include signs, lane markings and signals as well. When it comes to truck enforcement, the two are vastly different.

Truckers are used to seeing regulatory signs to weigh. Whether it is a weigh station alongside the side of the interstate or a portable scale location, truckers know that when the signs are up, you have to weigh. It doesn’t take long for word to spread across the radio when the police have the scales open, and truckers will turn off to avoid the scales. Problem is they might bypass another traffic control device restricting commercial vehicles and find themselves in a totally different enforcement situation.

The question is what happens when a trucker drives past the regulatory sign to weigh? The answer is simple…he has disobeyed a traffic control device as stated in 625 ILCS 5/11-305(a). This is a moving violation and can have damaging effects on a CDL. But it’s just a moving violation. The assumption that there is a higher penalty or fine simply because trucks are involved is erroneous.

This situation is vastly different than when a police officer himself orders a truck to weigh. Police officers have the right to order a truck to the scales to weigh when they have reason to believe it is overweight. This could be overweight on axle, gross, registration, permit, or the federal bridge formula. Regardless of the officer’s suspicion, there is no right to refusal. The truck driver must weigh.

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