Jersey shores up trailer trash law

VINELAND, N.J. – – If you’re driving in winter through New Jersey, remember it’s a B.Y.O.B. state.

In this case, it stands for bring your own brush. As in snow brush.

For one thing, the State has made the fines for snow coming off your trailers even stiffer than they used to be. And the Jersey law is much tougher than many of the neighboring states’. 

But also, when the State passed the law, the legislation stipulated that the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) somehow provide snow-removal equipment at weigh stations or rest stops. The cold truth of the matter is, the law didn’t include a deadline for that snow-removal equipment so nothing’s been done.

At least one trucking company owner thinks the State doesn’t want to risk the litigation that might arise after an incident, should the state-owned snow-removal equipment fail.

According to the local newspaper, Lee Robledo of National Freight Industries, of Vineland, said trucking companies would probably pass the buck if something happened.

"If the machine doesn’t get all of the snow off, and a piece of ice falls and injures somebody, we as the trucking company could say we paid you to remove the snow, so why was it still up there?" said Robledo, who oversees all safety precautions for the 7,000-trailer and 2,500-cab company.

"It is fine to impose a law, but you should have some solutions in place to keep you from breaking the law
Assemblyman John Wisniewski has introduced legislation that would exempt commercial truck drivers from the fines until the DOT does take steps to install the devices.