Legal Question in Employment Law in Virginia

Do fed laws superceed state laws in transportation

was asleep in restarea near frederiksberg va 5/21/98. was parked on shoulder inside restarea and not blocking trafic in any way. was taking my 8 hr break as mandated by fed dot regs and was given a ticket by a state trooper and told to leave. there were noparking signs in place i parked but as i said i was off the road. this state does not have addequate parking in rest areas but the shoulders on way out of rest area have wide shoulders for trucks to park. my question is; can the state force me to violate federal rules and force me to operate a motor vehicle in an unsafe manner due to fatigue? i would like to possibly bring a lawsuit against the state for forcing us to violate federal regs pertaining to rules of service. it seems to me that the state is more concerned with collecting revenue from truckers than keeping the roads safe. at early hours of the morning there are no places to park, truckstops and restareas are all full so what are we to do? is this worth persuing?


Asked on 5/25/98, 12:41 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Press Chung & Press, P.C.

Ticket in rest area

State law did not compel you to violate federal law, and vice versa. State law said no parking there. Federal law says you haveto stop somewhere. There are hotels, campgrounds, truck stops, and other places to stop - no one forced you to stop there. By theway, VA more than complies with federal law inthis regard. It actually prohibits ANYONE from driving for more than 13 hours in a 24-hour period.

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Answered on 7/15/98, 7:54 pm


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