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Yes; in the US there is a federal $5000 fine for the types of exhaust modifications that are normally required to make a diesel engine spew that much soot. The

Yes; in the US there is a federal $5000 fine for the types of exhaust modifications that are normally required to make a diesel engine spew that much soot. The thing I don't get is why the police, always eager to write that $100 speeding ticket, don't see these trucks as a goldmine.

throwaway0a5e 4y ago
> don't see these trucks as a goldmine. Think a few more steps ahead. A few too many instances of "police write $500 ticket to Jose the scrapper who's three owners removed from the one who modified the truck and is just trying to feed his family" is a great way to get the law changed. They'd rather have the law on the books so they can use it in their toolbox of slimy plea-bargain BS than actually enforce it and risk losing it. There's also institutional inertia at play. When it comes to revenue enforcement police are all about volume vs margin. They have a whole body of case law that makes it easy to just write speeding, rolling stop and DUI tickets and be nearly 100% assured those tickets will result in money for the state or department and the officers themselves are very well trained at writing those tickets properly. So without external political pressure they just keep doing what they're good at. Equipment violation tickets in most states usually have some sort of "prove u fixed it before the court date" clause that makes writing a $500 equipment violation less lucrative on average than writing 3-5 $100 speeding tickets. And all this is before you consider the relative availability of speeders to ticket vs coal rolling trucks (many of which can act normal just by changing the tune in software). TL;DR the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
mrguyorama 4y ago
There's the demographic makeup of police officers. I think it's more likely the a cop either owns or is friends with a big diesel truck driver, rather than having a prius at home. These are the same people that cover their stuff in punisher skulls, you know, that famous character that hates and murders cops and completely bucks the rule of law to get his own version of justice. Maybe, just maybe, we have the wrong people in our police forces.

throwaway0a5e 4y ago

> don't see these trucks as a goldmine. Think a few more steps ahead. A few too many instances of "police write $500 ticket to Jose the scrapper who's three owners removed from the one who modified the truck and is just trying to feed his family" is a great way to get the law changed. They'd rather have the law on the books so they can use it in their toolbox of slimy plea-bargain BS than actually enforce it and risk losing it. There's also institutional inertia at play. When it comes to revenue enforcement police are all about volume vs margin. They have a whole body of case law that makes it easy to just write speeding, rolling stop and DUI tickets and be nearly 100% assured those tickets will result in money for the state or department and the officers themselves are very well trained at writing those tickets properly. So without external political pressure they just keep doing what they're good at. Equipment violation tickets in most states usually have some sort of "prove u fixed it before the court date" clause that makes writing a $500 equipment violation less lucrative on average than writing 3-5 $100 speeding tickets. And all this is before you consider the relative availability of speeders to ticket vs coal rolling trucks (many of which can act normal just by changing the tune in software). TL;DR the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

mrguyorama 4y ago

There's the demographic makeup of police officers. I think it's more likely the a cop either owns or is friends with a big diesel truck driver, rather than having a prius at home. These are the same people that cover their stuff in punisher skulls, you know, that famous character that hates and murders cops and completely bucks the rule of law to get his own version of justice. Maybe, just maybe, we have the wrong people in our police forces.