Weirdest violation on DOT inspection

Principle I guess. She needed to be knocked off her pedestal big time. That is not enforcement, that is just being a prick with a badge. And THAT is what gives their profession a bad name and no respect.

 

i agree fully but the powers at be didnt want to bother with it

 

do they do truck/driver inspections near toll booths??

 

Oh yeah they do. I-294 NB at the tollplaza just north of I-80, they have a parking lot with about 9 or 10 spaces, I see DOT looking at trucks there often enough. And up at the Waukegan tollplaza (last one on I-94 before you get to WI), state troopers will sit off to the side, looking for rolling violations, including seatbelts.

 

DOT scale in Chowchilla put me OOS for a nail in my tire.

No air leaking but then the inspector decided to pull out the nail and then some air started leaking and got the ticket with ended being a little over $300 plus the emergency call out on a sunday which was almost $400.

 

Spot on! Nobody likes a cop when they're writing you up. However, I've been a trucker for a while, and I always am respectful when dealing with a cop. I've never once had a cop be nasty, rude or have a bad attitude if I am polite and respectful from the beginning to the end of my having to deal with one. Even the one time I had a real weird encounter with a State Trooper, it was still a respectful deal both ways. I was going across a bridge when I noticed a State Trooper behind me. I took an off-ramp near the end of the bridge and looked behind me to see the Trooper swerve at the last minute and follow me onto the exit. After a few miles on came his lights and I pulled over. I was mystified as to why he pulled me over, as I had done nothing wrong. I figured I had a light out or something. The cop told me he was going to pull me into an ODOT inspection facility down the road past the bridge if I had not taken the exit I did. He said that he wanted me to know that I got lucky that day. Didn't check my license nor anything else. Then he took off. Crazy story but true!

 

Nov 1 i got a ticket for parking an emergency only parking area on 181 in va. There was no sign for this within 4 miles of where i was pulled off and the area had a "double wide" shoulder. I had just pulled over 33 minutes bfore officer wrote me up to take my dot break and bcause i was fatigued having just been 4 days into a raging chest cold. I tried to explain the rule about fatigued driving to the officer but he wasnt hearing it...

 

He shouldn't have heard it, you were driving while ill/fatigued and took your 30 minute break on the shoulder of the road....

 

So u r saying i was in the wrong???

 

Shoulder of highway = emergency parking area unless explicitly posted otherwise (i.e.: wide shoulders on PA Turnpike that are posted "park behind line"). So on that, I would say yes, you were in the wrong.

As far as driving while fatigued goes, yes you should have parked, but you should have found a parking spot in a truck stop or rest area, which there are plenty of on I-81 in VA. You said you had a "raging chest cold" for 4 days prior to this, it isn't something that just came up right before you saw that shoulder.