COMPLAINTS ROLL IN ABOUT NEW HIGHWAY PATROL TICKETING POLICY AFTER CAR HAULING TRUCKER RECEIVES FIVE SPEEDING TICKETS

"THE TRUCK AND THE FOUR SUVs IT WAS HAULING WERE ALL GOING 74 MPH." 

Highway Patrol Officer Dickie Mermaster 

Local truckers honked air horns and illegally used their exhaust brakes yesterday to protest a new Highway Patrol policy that tickets truck drivers for multiple violations when they're hauling vehicles.  

The action came after Highway Patrol officer Dickie Mermaster on Saturday cited the driver of a speeding vehicle transporter five times, one ticket for the truck and one for each of the four Toyota Land Cruisers it was carrying.  

Crestfallen truck driver Malo Suerte clasps four citations as Highway Patrol
officer Dickie Mermaster prepares the fifth and final one

"All of these SUVs--and the truck--were traveling at 74 miles per hour in a 65 zone," explained Mermaster, "so the trucker got five tickets."    

"I knew I was going a little fast," acknowledged 48-year-old trucker Malo Suerte, "but I was only driving the truck, not the SUVs. It's not fair; I should only get one ticket."

But Mermaster disagreed, saying the Highway Patrol's new citation policy doesn't just target truckers. "Last week, a tour bus driving through town went through a stop sign. The driver and all 48 passengers, including a four-year-old girl, got tickets."