Court Opinion

ID: 9728882
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:18:09.333649+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:52.651753
License: Public Domain

CERCONE, President Judge,
concurring:
While I concur in the Court’s judgment, I cannot join in its broad view of the issue in the instant case. The court seems to indicate that if appellant had been permitted to prove “hardship or serious inconvenience” resulting from the weighing of his vehicle this might establish a defense to a conviction under the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S. § 4941(a) (1977).
Section 4981 of the Vehicle Code (weighing within two miles) is in Subchapter E of Chapter 49 and is totally distinct from Subchapter C in which section 4941(a) of the Code is located. Thus, there are two distinct types of conduct which the legislature seeks to regulate. Section 4941(a) prohibits, in the absence of a special permit, a vehicle with a gross weight in excess of 73,280 lbs. from being operated on a highway. Where, as in this case, the Commonwealth establishes the essential elements of this offense,1 a penalty is authorized under section 4945 of the Code. The second type of conduct sought to be regulated is found in Subchapter E of Chapter 49. Specifically, section 4983 provides that Subchaptcr E has been violated where the driver of an overweight vehicle “refuses to comply with *362the requirements of a police officer given pursuant to this subchapter [E] . .” Section 4981, therefore, bestows upon an officer the authority to stop a vehicle and where he so desires, require that a seized vehicle be driven to a stationary scale within two miles. As the instant operator was not charged with violating this section, the fact that the weighing in this case might have taken place on scales more than two miles from the point of seizure, regardless of hardship and inconvenience, is in the present procedural posture of this case — irrelevant.

. Accordingly, the question whether weighing is mandatory or directory is simply not presented by this case.