Tom Light is a long-haul truck driver with a 30-year history of moving freight across the nation.
In that time, the Palmyra resident and owner/operator of two tractors and two 48-foot trailers said he’s had few citations. That dynamic changed on Thursday, Aug. 15, while driving his rig on Clear Spring Road in North Annville Township.
Light was stopped and cited with a $203.26 fine after violating one of the township’s recently enacted ordinances limiting trailers on Clear Spring Road to a maximum of 43 feet unless the driver is making a local delivery.
The violation is covered in Title 75 of the Vehicle Code concerning obedience to traffic control devices. Light’s particular citation reads, “Failed to obey the instructions of an applicable official traffic-control device.” A section of his citation titled “Confidential Information” also noted that he “PASSED THROUGH POSTED SIGN NO TRUCKS ALLOWED OVER 48FT.”
Four days after receiving the citation, Light received a letter in the mail on letterhead from the office of District Justice John Ditzler, whose magisterial district covers North Annville Township, titled, “Notice of Withdrawal of Charges” under Title 234, Rule 457 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure.
The letter, dated Friday, Aug. 16, arrived at his home on Monday, Aug. 19, and notified Light that the charges had been dropped.
While Ditzler said it’s inappropriate for the court to comment on cases, he told LebTown that the letter was generated on the basis of the citing authority (the police) choosing to withdraw the case after it was filed and before any disposition on the merits occurred, meaning the citing agency made the determination to not move forward.
Rule 457 provides affiants, or individuals who are sworn by an affidavit, the authority to drop charges. The letter neither notes who dropped the charges nor why they were dropped.
“I had reached out to the (trucking) company on Monday that I had a violation and had explained to them that I was planning on fighting it,” said Light, who initially told LebTown the day he received the citation that he wasn’t sure if he would challenge it.
Supervisors enacted two ordinances on Monday, Aug. 12, concerning Clear Spring Road and erected new speed limit and trailer-size limitation signs on Tuesday, Aug. 13. Light’s citation came about 48 hours after the new signs had been posted.
The trailer-size signage was posted where Clear Spring Road intersects with routes 934 and 422, and new speed limit signs are located at various points along that two-mile stretch of highway.
The second ordinance approved by supervisors on Aug. 12 lowered the speed limit on Clear Spring Road from 40 mph to 35.
The posted trailer-size limit signs on Clear Spring Road at those intersections contain a “No Trucks” symbol, with the sign below that adds “with trailers over 43 ft” and another that adds “except residential deliveries.”
Light said he was returning home from a 2.5-day run to West Virginia, Ohio, and the Allentown area when he was cited shortly before 3 p.m. in the parking lot of the Rutter’s convenience store on Route 422 at Killinger Road in South Annville Township.
“I went by him (the Cleona Borough police officer) and then I saw the 35 mile per hour speed limit and I was like, ‘What the hell?’ That was 40 miles per hour when I left on Tuesday morning,” said Light. “On Tuesday, I went to Carlisle by way of (Interstate) 81 and I went up Clear Spring Road and didn’t see any (trailer-size limit) signs. I have to go to Carlisle tomorrow, so I guess I am going by way of Main Street (through Palmyra).”
As he was returning home the day he was cited, he added that he didn’t see the new trailer-length signs that are posted about 25 feet off of the intersection of Route 934 and Clear Spring Road. That led to him before being stopped by a Cleona police officer that Light said was sitting across from the entrance to Pennsy Supply about two miles after he had turned onto Clear Spring Road.
While investigating whether the citation was legal given questions that had been raised during prior public meetings of the North Annville Township supervisors, LebTown contacted the Camp Hill-based Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association for comment.
Megan Magensky, PMTA’s communications director, wrote in an email that Bob Nolan, leader of PMTA’s Road Team, told her that Title 75 states, “Signage must be posted a mile in advance of the restricted road. This will give a driver time to find an alternate route. If this is not the case, the citations will not hold up in court.”
The Road Team is the public outreach arm of the association, wrote Magensky.
North Annville Township secretary Adam Wolfe previously told LebTown that the ordinances were based on recommendations from township engineers, ELA Group Inc., following the release of a Clear Spring Road Corridor study in November 2023.
The study, which cost the township $50,000, was commissioned due to township concerns about traffic impacts on Clear Spring Road, and its findings included specific recommendations that led to the creation of the two ordinances.
However, questions were raised about the enforceability of the trailer-size ordinance if truckers have no advance warning before turning onto Clear Spring Road.
Township solicitor Paul Bametzreider provided an answer in response to a discussion on that topic at a recent public meeting.
“My position would be that once the ordinance goes into place and once the signage is on Clear Spring Road, I think it is an enforceable ordinance,” said Bametzreider. “Then, of course, if we run into problems with enforcement, then that’s good grounds to go to PennDOT to get the signs approved for state roads.”
Mark Sallada, deputy chief for Bellegrove Fire Company, suggested a period to gather data to show cause to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
It was noted at prior township meetings that municipalities must show cause to PennDOT before permission is given to erect warning signs like those limiting trailer size on state-maintained roads. Routes 422 and 934 are both maintained by the commonwealth.
Sallada questioned the enforceability of the trailer ordinance because he believes a district judge would question issuing citations without giving drivers ample notification before they turn onto a roadway where trailers of a certain size are banned.
Supervisor Aaron Miller told Sallada the question arose during prior discussions, adding that Clear Spring Road is also a snow emergency route, with signs that provide no advance warning. Miller used the example of Lebanon city having snow emergency route signs and noted that those specific signs don’t provide advance warning of a highway having that designation.
“I think that is as dumb as it sounds,” said Miller. “The rule is that it’s incumbent upon the driver, I don’t know how, and again, I feel bad for the truck driver who made that right or left turn and now he’s on that road and sees the sign, but what do you do? He’s on the road and now it is too late.”
Sallada said truck drivers might back their vehicles onto Route 934 to avoid the possibility of receiving a citation. That would create a hazardous situation, he said, given the high volume of traffic that travels that highway.
Cleona Borough police chief Jeffrey Farneski had noted at a meeting in the spring that the volume of traffic on Route 934 has increased since work began on the bridge on Route 72 in late April.
After Light was cited, LebTown followed up with Farneski, who said on Monday, Aug. 19, that he had patrolled Route 934 at Clear Spring Road since the ordinances were adopted and noticed truckers who were planning to turn but changed their minds after seeing the new trailer-size restriction signs.
Farneski said during a telephone interview that he had added extra patrols on Clear Spring Road after the new ordinances were enacted. Cleona Borough police contract with North Annville Township to provide police services.
“We’re trying to show an increased presence there,” said Farneski. “As far as speed, we have been enforcing it. We’ve issued a couple of tickets, most have been warnings to truckers, but some have been citations to truckers. The goal was to really increase our presence there, to make people aware of what’s going on. I can tell you my guys have been out there every day and I’ve been out there every day to have more of a presence.”
LebTown asked Farneski for the number of trailer violation citations or warnings that had been issued during the first week that the ordinance was in effect.
He answered he didn’t have that figure since all violations are mixed together for the municipalities the department patrols, which includes Cleona Borough and North Annville, Swatara and Union townships.
LebTown asked if he would issue a Clear Spring Road-specific report to the North Annville Township supervisors concerning the total number of trailer-size violations recorded from Tuesday, Aug. 13, until the next township meeting on Monday, Sept. 9. That question was posed based on PennDOT’s causal requirement.
“I don’t know that, but I do know we have been issuing tickets,” said Farneski. “I usually give a total number if they ask for it or a specific number, a breakdown. I can, but I don’t do that usually because I don’t report by street – unless we do a special detail, then I will have those specific numbers.”
He replied that supervisors never mentioned to him a grace period for drivers who violate the ordinances. He added there’s already a built-in grace period for speeding violations since citations are only issued to drivers traveling more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
Additionally, he said he had communicated with Wolfe on Friday, Aug. 16, about the department’s increased patrols on Clear Spring Road and what his department was doing concerning enforcement.
“The committee did not give me any specific instructions,” said Farneski, regarding a possible grace period for drivers. “I did speak to Adam, he texted me on Friday. I told him what we were doing and he was supportive of that – to educate, to increase presence – so I did speak to him via text messaging.”
“It’s not something that the supervisors discussed in any fashion since the ordinances were enacted,” said Wolfe. “As far as any kind of a grace period to some extent, we didn’t give any direction to the chief.”
Light believes there should have been a grace period.
“It’s not enough time for guys who leave home, drive their trucks for a week at a time and don’t know that things have changed,” said Light.
Concerning patrols last Thursday, two days after the signs had been erected, Farneski said he was monitoring Clear Spring Road early that day but didn’t issue any citations. He added he was there more as a presence than an enforcer of the new ordinances.
He also said he instructed his officers to push education while having a presence but also left the door open to individual officers to decide whether citations or warnings would be issued for violations. He added citations should be issued in cases involving “egregious” situations.
“I expressed to them that’s what I was going to encourage. Not that they can’t issue citations, but that they would be on a case-by-case basis,” added Farneski. “The signs did go up Tuesday morning and when it was posted, it was known that we would have an increase of officers on that road because the residents there are complaining.”
On the Thursday that Light was cited, LebTown watched the same Cleona officer from around 2:45 p.m. until about 4:15 p.m. stop numerous vehicles and three tractor-trailer drivers traveling towards Route 422 on Clear Spring Road.
The intervals between ending one stop and initiating another were nearly non-existent during that 90-minute period.
One out-of-state truck driver, who had a 53-foot trailer, was making a delivery to a nearby furniture store whose truck entrance is located on Clear Spring Road. He did not receive a citation since the trailer-size ordinance has a provision that permits local deliveries.
Another truck driver, John Henry of Palmyra, who came through the Route 422 and Clear Spring Road intersection after turning off Route 934 just like Light had minutes earlier, said he didn’t see the new trailer-size restriction signs, either.
Henry, who did not receive a citation since the Cleona police officer was already engaged with a non-truck driver for another violation when he passed through the intersection, said his attention was focused on making a safe turn off of Route 934 onto Clear Spring Road.
Concerning the new speed limit signs, LebTown asked Farneski why the township’s portable speed control device was posted that Thursday on a speed limit sign along Route 934 south just north of Bellegrove instead of on Clear Spring Road given the new speed limit ordinance.
“In all honesty, I didn’t even think about it,” said Farneski, who noted he is the only officer who moves that sign. “I base it on need or if the township requests us to target a specific area when we see a problem. I had received complaints in that section of (Route) 934 because there is a speed reduction right there and that’s why it (the sign) is posted there. It goes from 45 (mph) to 35 in that general area and we’ve had a lot of accidents in that general area given that Blackbird Road is a blind intersection.”
Farneski said other North Annville Township roadways, like Hill Church Road, are normally targeted with the speed monitoring device due to a high frequency of accidents at those locations.
He added that accidents occur on Clear Spring Road, too, especially at the intersection of Route 934, and that the frequency of crashes have been on “an uptick recently.” He noted three accidents had occurred on Clear Spring Road on Aug. 7-8, including two tractor-trailers that had a head-on collision.
Meanwhile, on the day his citation was issued, Light told LebTown he was unsure if he would fight it in court.
“If this was a $50 fine, that’d be one thing because I don’t need the headache, the hassle, the whatever,” said Light. “But $200? Yeah, that’s a little different. Here lately, that means a lot to me because work has been really slow.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication to clarify details of the notice of withdrawal.
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