At what point would be considered lightweight? In Wyoming i80

Common sense is stating in the law what “light and high-profile” vehicles really mean.

Just imagine citing drivers for “driving fast” when there are no speed limit laws. That wouldn’t make any sense. “Driving fast” citations are fair and make sense when there is a speed limit sign posted or written in the laws.

 

The $750 ticket is pittance compared to the towing/recovery/damages etc...

The intent is to avoid costs to trucking companies by avoiding a complete shutdown when it is only a tiny percentage of the traffic in the state that is lightly loaded, but those light trucks also cause even longer closures when they crash.

https://www.ugpti.org/resources/reports/downloads/mpc13-261.pdf

The ticket is being nice as it is the same fine as reckless driving without the 49 CFR 383.51 mandated 60 day CDL suspension and associated employment problems.

I don't know if it is because I grew up driving around here but the warning signs for rollovers/trailer traction loss are pretty obvious to me and I am just an average drivers. It is nearly impossible for law enforcement to know whether a vehicle is too light to be driving under the conditions until it’s too late; but every driver should notice how hard they are fighting the wheel and if their trailer is yawing or lifting.

Note that actual blow overs aren't that common, more often you will have a trailer jack knife or spin out like this truck on the Colorado Wyoming border. Unless you get hit by a microburst you will typically have lots of warnings if you listen to the truck before you spin out let alone flip.

While this is anecdote all of the trucks I have seen either rolled or trailer skidded off the side have typically been passing people and driving faster than most of the truck traffic. I don't know if those were also some of the 3% of the truck traffic that was light or if they were just run of the mill cases of people driving too fast for conditions.

 

You only get a ticket if you wreck, correct? I’d say that if you’re to the point of being in the ditch or laid over across the travel lanes it doesn’t really matter what ticket you get.

 

Correct, you have to drive past one of the electronic message boards, road closed signs etc... and then get in a wreck to be fined.

If the circumstances justify it they will swap or add reckless driving to the "failure to observe signs and markers" charg.

 

We don’t know if you’re only cited if you roll over due to strong winds, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. What matters is if it’s fair to be cited for “light and high-profile” vehicles because strong winds rolled you over even on a 75k truck and trailer. If that is happening as some members are claiming, then we’ll see about that in court. By the way, even if the equipment is totaled, I’d still fight the citation because the citation is unjust on a 75k truck and trailer. I’m not gonna let it slide. I’m sure others will accept the citation.

 

So take a failure to maintain lane ticket when you get blown off the road and go on about your day.

People aren’t allowed to think for themselves anymore. Company drivers will be pushed to keep going if the roads open and some people just don’t have any common sense. Seems like WY is trying to protect people from themselves.

It used to be in South Dakota if the roads were closed and you went out and got stranded someplace you were on your own if something happened. A few years ago they had to start writing tickets and people still keep going when the roads are closed because they think they have important stuff to do.

Back to light and high profile, how will they know without weighing trucks at roadside if a cop sees the wind catch your trailer? I guess I’d take the lesser of two evils at that point. If they see you leaving your lane they can just as easily give you a ticket for failure to maintain lane. I would guess if you end up in the ditch with 45k in your trailer they probably won’t waste their time writing a ticket for being light and high profile. But who knows? If you screw up bad enough and block the road or get other vehicles involved they should probably write you every ticket they can.

 

They can ask for your BOL. If no weight is stated, they can take you to the nearest scale. I’ve heard of portable scales, so that’s also a possibility. I remember seeing one in NM on I-25, north of Albuquerque.

 

@PE_Trans since we’re talking wind....you mentioned earlier about getting your tandems as close to the skirts as possible. Have you played around with tandem position in high winds at all? Reason I ask is the spread axle cattle trailer I pulled would handle the wind empty way better than the pneumatic I pull now. My current trailer is 13’2” tall and 46ft and it pulls like trash in high wind. On bad roads it seems like things happen faster, so I was wondering if sliding the tandems back would slow the movements down if your trailer was getting pushed around.

 

I get that. But if they see you leave your lane they can already give you a ticket.