                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

REMOVAL OF UNSAFE VEHICLES; PENALTY (§ 46.2-1001)

Any motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer examined by a law-enforcement officer
certified to perform vehicle safety inspections and found to be operating with
defective brakes, tires, wheels, steering mechanism, or any other condition
which is likely to cause an accident or a breakdown of the motor vehicle,
trailer, or semitrailer may be removed from the highway and not permitted to
operate again on the highway until the defects have been corrected and the
law-enforcement officer has found the corrections to be satisfactory. Such
law-enforcement officer may allow any motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer
discovered to be in such an unsafe condition while being operated on the highway
to continue in operation only to the nearest place where repairs can be safely
effected and only if such operation is less hazardous to the public than to
permit the motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer to remain on the highway.
		No person shall operate a motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer which has
been removed from service as provided in the foregoing provisions of this
section prior to correction and proper authorization by a law-enforcement
officer certified to perform vehicle safety inspection procedures.
		For the purpose of this section, the term &#8220;law-enforcement officer
certified to perform vehicle safety inspections&#8221; means those
law-enforcement officers who have satisfactorily met the requirements for
initial certification and maintenance of certification of driver/vehicle
inspectors as prescribed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration. Those law-enforcement officers certified to place
vehicles out of service must receive annual in-service training in current
federal motor carrier safety regulations, safety inspection procedures, and
out-of-service criteria. The Superintendent of State Police shall be responsible
for coordinating the annual in-service training. The agency administrator of the
law-enforcement agencies employing law-enforcement officers certified to perform
vehicle safety inspections shall provide the Department of Criminal Justice
Services with verification that law-enforcement officers certified to perform
vehicle safety inspections have met the requirements for initial certification
and maintenance of certification of driver/vehicle inspectors prescribed by the
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
and satisfactorily completed the annual in-service training required by this
section.
		Every vehicle inspected by a local law-enforcement officer pursuant to this
section and found to be free of defects which would constitute grounds for
removal of the vehicle from service shall be issued a sticker as evidence of
such inspection and freedom from defects. Such stickers shall be valid for 90
days. Any vehicle displaying a valid sticker shall be exempt from local or State
Police inspections under this section. However, the fact that a vehicle displays
a valid sticker shall not prevent any local or State Police officer from
stopping and inspecting the vehicle if he observes an obvious safety defect. The
Superintendent of State Police shall work cooperatively with local
law-enforcement agencies of localities whose officers are authorized to perform
inspections pursuant to this section to develop a standard sticker as provided
for in this section and uniform policies and procedures for issuance and display
of such stickers.
		However, notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, before
placing any vehicle out of service, the vehicle operator shall be allowed two
hours to effect repairs to his vehicle. Such repairs may be performed at the
site where the vehicle was inspected and found to be unsafe, provided the
vehicle requiring repair is off the highway, where the repairs can be effected
safely. If such repairs remedy the condition or conditions that would have
caused it to be taken out of service, it shall not be taken out of service, but
allowed to resume its operations. No such repairs, however, shall be allowed if
the vehicle&#8217;s load consists of hazardous material as defined in §
10.1-1400.

HISTORY: 1982, c. 90, § 46.1-279.01; 1985, c. 561; 1988, c. 77; 1989, c. 727;
1990, cc. 20, 167; 1991, cc. 284, 416; 1993, c. 409; 1995, cc. 39, 458; 1996,
cc. 24, 91, 144, 525; 1997, c. 35; 1999, cc. 68, 279; 2000, cc. 59, 112; 2002,
cc. 142, 223, 263; 2003, cc. 82, 85.