The Circleville, OH, county sheriff’s office is stepping up over-weight truck enforcement with the use of a new mobile truck scale unit.
Sheriff Robert Radcliff told Circleville Today the office has written several tickets for overweight loads, including one truck that was 35,000 lbs. overweight, since beginning to use the portable scales.
The mobile scales, which were purchased by the engineer’s office, allow two specially trained deputies to weigh trucks on any county or township roads within the county.
“Businesses have their own scales to make sure loads aren’t leaving overloaded, but most of the truck traffic is the thru traffic so it’s originating on the outside of the county,” said Chris Mullins, county engineer. “With the advent of GPS, sometimes these trucks are getting off system because they are following the shortest route on GPS. That often puts them on county and township roads.”
Mullins said his main concern is protecting bridges.
“A lot of the county and township roads were never designed or built to handle heavy truckloads,” he said. “Some of these bridges are 100 years old. They have posted weight limits for a reason.”
Depending on the amount a truck is overweight, fines could exceed $1,000.
