A Colorado town has been accused of setting up a “truck trap,” designed to profit off unsuspecting truck drivers. Now some drivers are fighting back and threatening to boycott the town by refusing to deliver goods there.
Truckers say the town of Erie, Colorado, has intentionally placed weight restriction signs in locations that leave them no room to safely turn after spotting the signs. Once they continue through town, they are often met by a local law enforcement officer who issues costly overweight vehicle citations.
Truck driver Jeff Winowiecki recently described his experience with reporters at Fox 31 News. He says after turning from Highway 52 onto County Line Road toward Erie, he spotted the 13-ton limit sign but didn’t have any room to turn around. He was stopped a short distance later by an officer who issued a $1,030 ticket for violating the weight restriction.
“Legally, I wouldn’t even be able to come down this road empty,” said Winowiecki. “It was rush hour. Cars coming at me. Cars coming behind me. There’s nothing I can do. I’m just going to create a wreck if I try to do anything.”
“He basically told me he was going to get every truck going through here. He told me he was going to get ’em,” Winowiecki added.
Truck driver Tim Temple, who also recently received an overweight citation in Erie, told reporters, “It`s a scam. You can’t turn around nowhere. You can’t back up nowhere. All you can do is go straight through town.”
A third trucker, Craig Engle, is calling for a boycott of the town in order to protest the sneaky weight limit signage. “I will not buy fuel here. I won’t buy my tires. Anything here. They got my thousand bucks, but they’re not going to get any of my business anymore,” Engle said.
All three truckers pleaded not guilty in traffic court in December, but lost their pleas and were forced to pay the $1030 fine.
On January 20th, 2017, the Erie board of Trustees voted to increase the fine from $1030 to $2,650.
Watch Fox 31’s recent coverage of Erie’s “truck trap” in the video below.