§ 82-7-15. Weighing vehicles; procedure; unloading excess load; weighing fee; certificate as to accuracy of scales admissible as evidence.

(a)

Any officer authorized to enforce the law under this Chapter, having reason to believe that the weight of a vehicle and load is unlawful, is authorized to weight the same. If the place where the vehicle is stopped is ten (10) miles or less from a permanent weighing station, the officer may, and upon demand of the driver shall, require the vehicle to proceed to such station; if the distance to the nearest permanent weighing station is more than ten (10) miles such vehicle may be weighed by loadometers. Any operator who fails or refuses to drive his vehicle to such permanent weighing station or upon such scales or loadometers upon the request and direction of the officer so to do shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than Ten Dollars ($10.00) nor more than One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), which penalty shall be in addition to any other penalties prescribed for exceeding the maximum weight permitted or for any other violation. Should the officer find that the weight of any vehicle and its load is greater than that permitted by this Chapter or that the weight of the load carried in or on such vehicle is greater than that which the vehicle is licensed to carry under the provisions of this Chapter, he may require the driver to unload, at the nearest place where the property unloaded may be stored or transferred to another vehicle, such portion of the load as may be necessary to decrease the gross weight of the vehicle to the maximum therefor permitted by this Chapter. Any property so unloaded shall be stored or cared for by the owner or operator of the overweight vehicle at the risk of such owner or operator. If the driver of an overloaded vehicle is convicted, forfeits bail or purchases an increased license as a result of such weighing, the court in addition to all other penalties shall assess and collect a weighing fee of Two Dollars ($2.00) from the owner or operator of the vehicle and shall forward such fee to the State Treasurer. Upon receipt of the fee, the State Treasurer shall allocate the same to the fund appropriated for the administration and maintenance of the Department of State Police.

(b)

In any court or legal proceedings in which any question arises as to the calibration or accuracy of any such scales at permanent weighing stations or loadometers, a certificate, executed and signed under oath by the inspector calibrating or testing such device as to its accuracy as well as to the accuracy of the test weights used in such test, and stating the time of such test, type of test and results of testing, shall be admissible when attested by one such inspector who executed and signed it as evidence of the facts therein stated and the results of such testing. (3-13-63; 1961 Code, § 16-207.)

Footnotes:

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152. For similar state law, see Va. Code Ann., § 46.2-1137.