Michigan is not doing a good enough job enforcing truck weight regulations, and that's taking a toll on the state's highways, according to an audit released last week.
The audit, conducted from April to September of 2000, found that State Police don't effectively use their weigh-in-motion scales embedded in roads. It also found the State Police Motor Carrier Division was understaffed, reported the Associated Press.
State Police officials told the AP that the scales were not used because they often were inaccurate or broken. The audit found tat at one weigh station, a weigh-in-motion scale under-weighed passing trucks by 21 percent.
Since the audit, the state Department of Transportation has installed 30 more sensors. In addition, enforcement officials say they use portable scales more often than the ones embedded in the roadways. There are 100 patrol cars equipped with the scales, targeted at secondary roads where overweight truckers try to avoid weigh stations.
"Weigh stations are 1950s technology," Charles Culton, assistant commander of the Motor Carrier Division, told the Detroit Free Press. "If your truck is overweight, or has some other problem, you'll just find a way to bypass them."
The audit, conducted from April to September of 2000, found that State Police don't effectively use their weigh-in-motion scales embedded in roads. It also found the State Police Motor Carrier Division was understaffed, reported the Associated Press.
State Police officials told the AP that the scales were not used because they often were inaccurate or broken. The audit found tat at one weigh station, a weigh-in-motion scale under-weighed passing trucks by 21 percent.
Since the audit, the state Department of Transportation has installed 30 more sensors. In addition, enforcement officials say they use portable scales more often than the ones embedded in the roadways. There are 100 patrol cars equipped with the scales, targeted at secondary roads where overweight truckers try to avoid weigh stations.
"Weigh stations are 1950s technology," Charles Culton, assistant commander of the Motor Carrier Division, told the Detroit Free Press. "If your truck is overweight, or has some other problem, you'll just find a way to bypass them."
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