Advice on fighting a ticket for failure to obey sign.

Greetings!

wasn’t sure where to post this and have read of similarities (but not quite the same) and wanted to see if anyone else has ever had this happen.

I live in Georgia. Made a drop and was bobtailed. Due to an accident on a normal route, I went a different route back to my shop.

On a side road leaving the drop, I turned right. Approximately 20 feet from the entry of the road, there was an unseen sign (trees, curve, etc.) that was unseen with a “36k gvrw” limit. Truck is under 36k by a Long shot. Also, this sign is 150 feet from another company’s terminal (the placement makes zero sense). the sign is also smaller than every other one in the county.

Two miles away, I get stopped by local PD. I was issued a citation for “failure to obey sign” (not an overweight ticket). In Georgia, this is 4 points and treated the same as blowing a red light and COULD be a misdeameanor.

Legally, the GVRW is over 36k. That isn’t the debate. However without a trailer, has anyone ever fought a similar ticket? PD never looked at GVW and this particular officer has made the news more than one time for the amount of “distracted driving tickets”.

Attorney has been hired and the question isn’t whether or not I passed the sign.

there’s really two pieces to it:

1. is there a federal law for minimum requirements for gvrw signs? I’ve searched high and low because this signs in blind curve on a 45 road. Knowing where the sign is, you cannot see the sign until it’s too late. Everything I’ve read is not recent and has no specifics about setback or size.

2. Could the argument be made that GVRW without a trailer would be nowhere near 36k?

 

This is the literal sign in question. This image is from a video driving from the facing side. The fence is the drop point where I dropped and just past it, is the other terminal.

 

Gwinnett. 316 at Publix DC. Take a right out and the signs to the right off hurricane shoals.