Unless another penalty is expressly provided
by law, every person convicted of a violation of any provision of
this chapter shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100 or
by imprisonment for not more than 10 days or by both such fine and
imprisonment.
A.
The Chief of Police shall provide books to include
traffic citation forms for notifying alleged violators to pay by mail
or in person at Johnston Municipal Court charges of violating traffic
laws and ordinances of this Town. The books shall include serially
numbered sets of citations in duplicate in the form prescribed and
approved jointly by the Traffic Commission and the Chief of Police.
B.
The traffic officer shall be responsible for the issuance
of such books to individual members of the Police Department. This
officer shall require a written receipt for every book so issued and
shall maintain a record of every such book and each set of citations
contained therein.
A.
Except when authorized or directed under state law
to immediately take a person before a Judge for the violation of any
traffic laws, a police officer who halts a person for such violation
other than for the purpose of giving him a warning and does not take
such person into custody under arrest shall take the name, address,
and driver's license number of the person, the registration number
of the motor vehicle involved, and such other pertinent information
as may be necessary and shall issue to him in writing, on a form provided
by the Chief of Police and the Traffic Commission, a traffic citation
containing a notice of the charges against him.
B.
Such person will be required to pay the violation
within seven days after the alleged violation, by mail or in person
at the Johnston Municipal Court.
A.
Every record of traffic citations, complaints thereon,
and warrants issued therefor required in this article shall be audited
at least quarterly by the Town Finance Director who shall submit a
report of such audit, together with a summary thereof, to the Mayor
and the Town Council Traffic Commission.
B.
The Finance Director shall publish or cause to be
published a quarterly summary of all traffic citations issued by the
members of the Police Department.
C.
For the purpose of this article, the Town Finance
Director or his duly authorized representatives shall have access
at all times to all necessary records, files and papers of the Municipal
Court of this Town and the Police Department.
Whenever any motor vehicle without a driver
is found parked, standing or stopped in violation of any of the restrictions
imposed by ordinance of this Town or by state law, the officer finding
such vehicle shall take its registration number and may take any other
information displayed on the vehicle which may identify its user,
and shall conspicuously affix to such vehicle a traffic citation,
on a form prescribed by the Chief of Police and the Traffic Commission
for the driver to answer to the charge against him within seven days
during the hours and at a place specified in the citation.
If a violator of the restriction on stopping,
standing or parking under the traffic laws or ordinances does not
respond to a traffic citation affixed to such motor vehicle within
a period of seven days, the Johnston Municipal Court shall send to
the owner of the motor vehicle to which the traffic citation was affixed
a letter informing him of the violation and warning him that in the
event such letter is disregarded for a period of five days a warrant
of arrest will be issued.
A.
In any prosecution charging a violation of any law
or regulation governing the standing or parking of a vehicle, proof
that the particular vehicle described in the complaint was parked
in violation of any such law or regulation, together with proof that
the defendant named in the complaint was at the time of such parking
the registered owner of such vehicle, shall constitute in evidence
a prima facie presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle
was the person who parked or placed the vehicle at the point where,
and for the time during which, the violation occurred.
B.
The foregoing stated presumption shall apply only
when the procedure as prescribed has been followed.
In the event any person fails to comply with
a traffic citation given to such person or attached to a vehicle within
the required time, a warrant may be issued for his arrest by the Judge
of the Johnston Municipal Court.
All fines or forfeitures collected upon conviction
or upon the forfeiture of bail of any person charged with a violation
of any of the provisions of this chapter shall be paid into the Town
treasury and deposited in a special fund.
A.
When authorized by the laws of this state, members
of the Police Department may remove a vehicle from a street or highway
to the nearest garage or other place of safety, or to a garage designated
or maintained by the Police Department, or otherwise maintained by
this Town.
B.
Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street
as authorized in this section and the officer knows or is able to
ascertain from the registration records in the vehicle the name and
address of the owner thereof, such officer shall immediately give
or cause to be given notice in writing to the owner of the fact of
the removal and the reasons therefor and of the place to which the
vehicle has been removed. In the event any such vehicle is stored
in a public garage, a copy of the notice shall be given to the proprietor
of the garage.
C.
Whenever an officer removes a vehicle from a street
under this section and does not know and is not able to ascertain
the name of the owner, or for any other reason is unable to give the
notice to the owner as hereinbefore provided, and in the event the
vehicle is not returned to the owner within a period of three days,
then and in that event the officer shall immediately send or cause
to be sent a written report of such removal by mail to the state department
whose duty it is to register motor vehicles, and shall file a copy
of the notice with the proprietor of any public garage in which the
vehicle may be stored. The notice shall include a complete description
of the vehicle, the date, time, and place from which removed, the
reasons for the removal, and the name of the garage or place where
the vehicle is stored.
