what were the engineers thinking, why no road gear

markct · Sep 12, 2003

( I will call the state police and ask them(at least I will know the answer for my state)
)

i wouldnt count on getting the correct answer from your state trooper, seems often times they dont even know the correct law on all stuff, they should but they dont. a few weeks ago i was towing a couple hay wagons on the road when a cop pulled up behind me with lights on, so im thinking oh great now what, well she gets out and proceeds to ask me for my licence, which even tho its not neccesary to drive a tractor i had no problem giving it to her, the she says do ya know why i stopped ya, and i said no, well there is not licence plate on your trailer, so of course i said its farm machinery it doesnt have to be registered. she then gave me the answer of "oh yes it does, why do ya think they have farm plates", i said those are for farm trucks, she said no they are for all farm machinery and i argued with her on that briefly and finaly she spent a few minutes on her radio and came to the conclusion that farm plates were for farm trucks. in the meantime another cop stopped by, luckly this was a cop that knew me, and he also stated that farm plates were for farm trucks and tractors didnt need a plate, just an smv which i had. didnt get any ticket or anything and when she went back to her car he told me that she was new and that she had come from a city so wasnt very experienced with ag equipment on the road. so it goes to show that just cause they are cops doesnt mean they always know what the law is.

Bird · Sep 12, 2003

( i wouldnt count on getting the correct answer from your state trooper, seems often times they dont even know the correct law on all stuff, they should but they dont. )

Mark, even lawyers don't know more than a very small percentage of the laws (there are too many and too complicated for anyone to know them all); what lawyers do learn (or are supposed to learn) is how to look up the law. And what police are usually taught are just the laws that they commonly enforce. And both lawyers and police need to know not only the statutory law, but case law; i.e., how courts have interpreted and enforced those laws.

So I agree when you say ( they dont even know the correct law on all stuff ), but I disagree when you say ( they should ). That'll never happen. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Therefore . . ., I can't fault that new trooper for not knowing, but if I were her supervisor, I'd instruct her to find out and know what the law is before stopping someone she thought was violating the law.

I once had one of my officers write a speeding citation to a teenager for speeding in the parking lot of a shopping center. I have no doubt the kid was dangerous, but the shopping center parking lot was private property. The officer was not happy, in fact submitted his resignation, when I told him he'd have to go to the kid's house and retrieve that citation because, at that time at least, there was no law in Texas prohibiting speeding, or establishing speed limits, on private property. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

markct · Sep 13, 2003

yea i didnt mean to lump all cops into that same category and like ya said no one knows everything, but i just meant to tell him to not neccesarily count on getting the right answer since its often how that particular cop interprets it, or if your lucky he will look it up and then ya will know for sure. and i agree bird, its understandable that she didnt know, but she should have checked before stopping me. but we all make mistakes. atleast for her sake she wouldnt have looked so silly in the end

Soundguy · Sep 14, 2003

( ( without a licensed driver )

I thought to drive a tractor on the road you had to be a licensed driver,even a tractor driver needs to know the basic's about the laws of driving on a road. )

Of course check your local laws.. but here in fl.. you don't need a license for heavy equipment on the road, or tractors.. etc.

Soundguy

Soundguy · Sep 14, 2003

( yea i didnt mean to lump all cops into that same category and )

Look at the IRS... the last 'blind' study they did.. IRS support line failed about 60% o fthe answers.... go figure..

Soundguy

OkeeDon · Sep 14, 2003

Yeah, I read that one, too. The IRS disputed the findings; claimed they only flunked about 40% of the time, got it right about 60%. My thought was, "So? They're bragging about 60% correct? What's up with that?"