(A) Forms and notices of arrest or appearance. The town shall provide, in triplicate, serially numbered forms for notifying violators to appear and answer to charges of violating traffic laws and ordinances. Such forms shall be issued to and receipted for by the Town Marshal or other persons acting for him or her.
(B) Procedure upon arrest. Except when authorized or directed under the state law to immediately take a person arrested for a violation of any traffic law before the Town Judge, the Town Marshal, upon making an arrest for violation of the state traffic ordinances of this town, shall take the name, address, and operator’s license number of alleged violator and the registered number of the motor vehicle involved and shall issue to him or her, in writing on a form provided by the town, a notice to answer to the charge against him or her at a place and at least five days after the arrest, to be specified in the notice. The Town Marshal, upon receiving the written promise of the alleged violator to answer as specified in the notice, shall release such persons from custody; provided however, if there be no Town Judge, the Town Marshal shall cause the person arrested to appear in any court in the county having jurisdiction in criminal cases.
(C) Notice on illegally parked vehicles. Whenever any motor vehicle without a driver is found parked or stopped in violation of any of the restrictions imposed by ordinance of this town or by state law, the Town Marshal finding such vehicle shall take its registration number and may take any other information displayed on the vehicle that may identify its user and shall conspicuously affix to such vehicle a notice in writing on a form provided by the town, for the driver to answer to the charge specified in the notice. The Town Marshal shall send one copy of such notice to the Chief of Traffic Division and one copy to the Traffic Violations Bureau.
(D) Failure to comply with notice attached to parked vehicle. lf a violator of the restrictions on stopping, standing, or parking under the traffic laws or ordinances does not appear in response to a notice affixed to such motor vehicle within a period of five days, the Town Marshal shall send to the owner of the motor vehicle to which the notice was affixed, a letter informing him or her of the violations and warning him or her that in the event such letter is disregarded for a period of five days a complaint will be filed and warrant of arrest issued.
(E) Presumption in reference to illegal parking.
(1) In any prosecution charging a violation of any law or regulation governing the standing or parking of a vehicle proof that the particular vehicle described in the complaint was parked in violation of any such law or regulation, together with proof that the defendant named in the complaint was, at the time of such parking, the registered owner of such vehicle, shall constitute in evidence a prima facie presumption that the registered owner of such vehicle was the person who parked or placed such vehicle at the point where and for the time during which such violation occurred. Such presumption may be rebutted by any proper admissible evidence of probative effect.
(2) The state presumption in division (E)(1) above shall apply only when the procedure as prescribed in divisions (C) and (D) above have been followed.
(F) When complaint to be issued. In the event any person fails to comply with a notice given to such person or attached to vehicle or fails to make appearance pursuant to a summons directing an appearance in the Town Court or if any person fails or refuses to deposit bail as required and, within the time permitted by ordinance, the Town Marshal shall forthwith have a complaint entered against such person and secure and issue a warrant for his or her arrest.
(G) Authority to impound vehicles.
(1) The Town Marshal is hereby authorized to remove a vehicle from a street or highway to the nearest garage or other place of safety, under the circumstances hereinafter enumerated:
(a) When any vehicle is left unattended upon any bridge, viaduct, or causeway, where such vehicles constitute an obstruction to traffic;
(b) When a vehicle upon a highway is so disabled as to constitute an obstruction to traffic and the person or persons in charge of the vehicle are by reason of physical injury incapacitated to such an extent as to be unable to provide for its custody or removal; or
(c) When any vehicle is left unattended upon a street and is so parked illegally as to constitute a definite hazard or obstruction to the normal movement of traffic.
(2) Whenever the Town Marshal removes a vehicle from a street as authorized in this section and the town marshal knows or is able to ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle the name and address of the owner thereof, the Town Marshal shall immediately give or cause to be given notice in writing to such owner of the fact of such removal and the reason therefor and of the place to which such vehicle has been removed. In the event any such vehicle is stored in a public garage, a copy of such notice shall be given to the proprietor of such garage.
(Ord. 107, passed 5-18-1962) Penalty, see § 70.99