Legal Question in Traffic Law in California

Probably not. Many trucks have the tailgate down permanently. Usually, the law would not say it was ok if you were carrying a load, but otherwise not. A bigger question is what exactly were your circumstances? Could a police officer have seen some reckless behavior or load carrying that would encourage him to cite you for reckless endangerment, for example? Check with the DMV code which is online. If you were cited for this by a police officer, what did the citation refer to in the DMV code?