Penalties for Truckers * USA - Summit DA adds who don't chain up

Saying existing fines don't do enough to penalize truckers for not chaining up during snowstorms

Summit,CO,USA -The Summit Daily News, by Alex Miller -December 18, 2009: ... Fifth Judicial District Attorney, Mark Hurlbert, said Friday his office is adding an additional penalty. Along with fines of $500 or $1,000, the DA will add a charge of “failing to obey a traffic control device,” which would deduct four points from a trucker's license... Greg Fulton, president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association representing truckers, said he was shocked to hear about it... As it stands now, Hurlbert said, chain-law non-compliance fines are often paid by the trucking company, not the individual trucker, which has apparently provided little in the way of deterrence. The new charge that carries a point penalty will hopefully do more, Hurlbert said... But Fulton said drivers usually do pay their own fines. He added that, when the State Legislature created the chain-law violation fines last year, there was discussion about assessing points. But that, he said, would only target Colorado truckers, and so the idea was scrapped... (Photo from tinypic)