Two Idaho Falls truckers who allegedly tried to bypass the Idaho Port of Entry weigh station east of Lewiston early Wednesday were involved in accidents that may cost them much more in repairs and fines than their fees would have been.
The two, who reportedly were traveling together with loads of grain from North Dakota to the Port of Clarkston, got into trouble about 3 a.m. on the snow-slickened Old Lapwai Road one mile west of Lapwai.
James L. Cooper, state police port of entry specialist at the station just east of Lewiston, said, “This was the first time we’ve caught anyone on that road. We’ve caught others on Webb and other roads, though.”
In fact, Cooper arrested these same truckers — Zeke Hacker, 43, and Thomas McRill, 31 — on Webb Road in August.
Cooper reported that Hacker and McRill drove over Lolo Pass and down U.S. Highway 12 to Spalding, then detoured around through Lapwai and onto the Old Lapwai Road that enters Lewiston along Lindsay Creek.
Hacker, who was in the lead with a late model Mack truck-trailer, “spun out” on an upgrade, and his trailer landing gear sank into the snow-covered gravel road, causing minor damage.
McRill also “spun out” on that grade, so he stopped to put chains on his 1980 Mack truck-trailer wheels. “Then he tore the rear end gear out of his truck.”
The second truck blocked the road for the next 12 hours before it was pulled away by a wrecker.
Each trucker had about 30,000 pounds in excess of the legal limit of 105,000 pounds. The maximum fine for that overload would have been $125, Cooper said.
The repair and wrecker bills will be considerably more than that, the state officer estimated. In addition, Hacker and McRill will face charges of bypassing a port of entry.
The truckers would have saved themselves the $125 fine for overloads if they remained on U.S. Highway 12 into Lewiston, Cooper said, because the weigh station wasn’t open then. “But they thought it was.”
Cooper said a number of grain truckers bypass he port of entry and avoid fees and fines while putting heavy wear on the rural roads.
He asked residents along those routes to call the Idaho state patrol office at Lewiston at any time of day or night to report such violations.
This story was published in the Dec. 31, 1981, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
