State Agency Makes Traffic Stops, Tickets Drivers for Violations

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

BLANCHARD, Oklahoma -- There's a state agency that can stop trucks on the highways for a variety of violations--and it isn't the Highway Patrol. And the agency paid a visit to Blanchard this week.

Anyone driving any sort of truck around Blanchard this week might have been pulled over by someone in a white car with flashing lights--and ticketed as well, but what agency was it that was doing it?

Some of those stops and some of that ticketing took place along State Highway 62 just outside downtown Blanchard. The people making the stops, it turns out, are Motor Carrier/Vehicle enforcement officers. They operate under the authority of the Corporation Commission. They're usually visible at weigh stations around the state, but they also have authority to enforce Oklahoma's trucking rules as well as federal transportation regulations.

When they're out on the road, they take portable scales for weighing in the field. They stop and cite trucks that exceed weight and height limits. They have environmental responsibilities too that involve tracking substances transported from oil field sites.

"We had two officers working the Blanchard area, and we had two others working state highways outside that area, but near enough that someone may have said, 'Hey, I was stopped in Blanchard,'" Corporation Commission Spokesman Matt Skinner said.

The officers have authority--and apparently used it-- to stop and ticket for improper registration and lack of insurance in Blanchard.

Last year the MCV enforcement officers issued more than 23,000 citations and more than 3,000 warnings.

Anyone ticketed by one of the MCV officers can file a protest, by calling the Corporation Commission at 405-521-2211.