While hauling milk to stores Friday in a semi-trailer, John Raimondi found himself making a slight detour.
His rig, owned by R & J Hauling of West Chicago, was the third that Aurora police pulled over and led to a parking lot at Illinois Highway 59 and 75th Street, where six officers were staging a truck-weighing operation.
In the first test of six new portable scales, police were making sure trucks did not exceed statutory weight limits. Police also verified commercial licenses and conducted equipment safety checks.
“We want to improve highway safety and preserve our roadways,” said Sgt. Bill Lomax, head of the Traffic Division.
A well-maintained semi-trailer at its maximum allowed weight of 80,000 pounds takes 450 feet to stop, about three times the distance of a car, he said. Citing federal estimates, Lomax said a fully loaded truck causes as much wear on a street as 9,600 cars.
During Friday’s three-hour detail, officers were on the lookout for signs of overweight trucks, which can include staggering starts, dark and cloudy exhaust or rear wheels that are compressed or “forced together,” Lomax said.
Sixteen trucks were stopped, weighed and checked, and five were cited or issued warnings. One cement mixing truck was issued a warning for being 2,500 pounds overweight. If the company that owns the truck had been cited, it would have faced a $953 fine.
“I was wondering what I was doing wrong,” Raimondi said. As it turned out, nothing. His truck was within the weight limits, and everything else checked out fine, Lomax said.
“What can you do?” Raimondi said afterward. “It doesn’t bother me. I’ll get done sooner or later.” But one trucker, who declined to give his name, expressed anger at being stopped, calling the detail “a big joke” staged for the media.
Lomax, however, said the media attention was important at the launch of the enforcement effort, which will involve further details. “It lets the word get out to the truckers,” he said. “From now on, we will be enforcing the law to the letter.”
