2020 Delaware Code
Title 21 - Motor Vehicles
Chapter 45. Size and Weight of Vehicles and Loads
§ 4506 Enforcement authority.
(a) Any police officer, having reason to believe that the weight of a vehicle and load is unlawful, or during the course of a routine check of all applicable vehicles, may weigh said vehicle by means of a portable or stationary scale and/or may require that such vehicle be driven to a designated scale location and be weighed. The officer may then require the driver to unload immediately such portion of the load as is necessary to decrease the gross weight of such vehicle to the maximum specified in this chapter or for which it is registered, whichever is the lesser weight. All such materials shall be unloaded and cared for by the owner or operator of the vehicle at the risk and expense of such owner or operator. All farm vehicles and trucks are exempted from this subsection while engaged in farming operations except live-haul poultry trucks shall not be exempted from this section.
(b) It shall be unlawful for an owner or operator to fail to remove from the deposit area by a time specified by the officer any such material that has been unloaded. An owner or operator, or both, found to be in violation of this section shall be punished as provided in § 4508 of this title.
(c) It shall be unlawful and punishable pursuant to § 4508 herein for an owner or operator to:
(1) Fail to obey traffic control devices erected to enforce this chapter;
(2) Fail to stop at areas selected for vehicle weighing operations;
(3) Deviate from the route of travel to avoid State Police weighing operations;
(4) Deliberately destroy or damage traffic control devices or weighing equipment erected or established to enforce this chapter.
(d) (1) A summons in appropriate form to be adopted by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security may be attached to an unattended vehicle found to be in violation of § 4508 of this title by any police officer authorized to arrest for violations of this title, in lieu of arrest of the operator of such vehicle.
(2) If the identity of the operator of an unattended vehicle is not otherwise apparent, it shall be prima facie evidence that the person in whose name the vehicle is registered as the owner is responsible for such violation.
(e) Any remedy or penalty imposed pursuant to this section shall not relieve the owner or operator of any requirement or penalty otherwise imposed by operation of law or pursuant to this chapter.
36 Del. Laws, c. 10, § 118; 37 Del. Laws, c. 10, § 32; Code 1935, § 5656; 21 Del. C. 1953, § 4506; 57 Del. Laws, c. 543; 64 Del. Laws, c. 207, § 5; 66 Del. Laws, c. 266, §§ 1, 2; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1; 74 Del. Laws, c. 110, § 102; 78 Del. Laws, c. 152, § 1; 79 Del. Laws, c. 220, § 3;
