The following requirements shall apply to motor vehicle transportation within the city of hazardous materials required to be placarded under title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as amended, and radioactive materials subject to regulation under 10 C.F.R. section 71.5, as amended:
(a) Vehicles transporting hazardous materials shall operate at all times with their headlights and taillights on and in good repair.
(b) Transporters of hazardous material shall not permit or cause to be permitted the discharge of hazardous materials into or upon any street, highway, sanitary sewer, drainage canal or ditch, storm drain or flood control channel, or upon the ground, including private property, except when such discharge is expressly permitted by the property owner and is otherwise legal.
(c) Transporters of hazardous material shall not create a hazard to the public by the location or condition of their vehicles which contain hazardous materials.
(d) Transporters of hazardous materials shall prominently display upon any vehicle used to transport hazardous materials such proof of payment of applicable city fees as required by the fire chief.
(e) A judgment of violation established pursuant to procedures set out in chapter 28, for transporting hazardous materials within or through the city without first obtaining a permit as required by this chapter, shall be punished by a minimum mandatory fine of one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a first offense, two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) for a second offense and five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each subsequent offense committed thereafter by that same person. It shall be no defense under this section that the person cited for failure to obtain a permit has, since the time of that citation, obtained the appropriate permit or, except as set out in subsection (g) of this section, that the vehicle and/or its load are owned by someone other than the driver of the vehicle.
(f) A judgment of violation, established pursuant to procedures set out in chapter 28, for transporting hazardous materials within or through the city after denial of a permit pursuant to subsection (d) of this section or during suspension or revocation of a permit as authorized in subsection (e) of this section, shall be punished by a minimum mandatory fine of five hundred dollars ($500.00). It shall be no defense under this section that the denial, revocation or suspension is under appeal or, except as set out in subsection (g) of this section, that the vehicle and/or its load are owned by someone other than the driver of the vehicle.
(g) The city may, at its sole discretion, issue citations or long-term complaints for transporting hazardous materials despite revocation or suspension of the requisite city permit or for transporting hazardous wastes without first obtaining a permit as required by this chapter to either the driver of the transporting vehicle or to an owner, lessee or other person responsible for the vehicle, or to both. In cases in which the city elects to cite only the driver of the transporting vehicle, that driver may be dismissed from the prosecution and relieved of any further responsibility to defend the charge or pay penalties if an owner, lessee or other party responsible for the transporting vehicle comes forward in a time, place and manner satisfactory to the city and concedes responsibility for the vehicle, its cargo and its location at the time of the cited offense and moves to be, and is, substituted for the driver as defendant in the prosecution.
(Ord. No. 6581, § 4, 12-8-86)
Cross reference – Operation of motor vehicles generally, § 20-135 et seq.