[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Council of
the Town of Hillsville 10-11-1978 as Ch. 20, Arts. I and II, of the
1978 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
Words and phrases under and contained in this
chapter shall have the meanings ascribed to them by § 46.2-100,
Code of Virginia, except where the context clearly requires a different
meaning.
The provisions of this chapter applicable to
the drivers of vehicles shall apply to the drivers of all vehicles,
regardless of ownership, subject to such specific exceptions as are
set forth in this chapter.
[Amended 7-11-1984; 11-14-1990]
Pursuant to the provisions of § 46.2-1313, Code of Virginia, as amended, all of the provisions and requirements of the laws of the state contained in Chapter 8 (Regulation of Traffic), Chapter 3 (Licensure of Drivers) and Chapter 10 (Motor Vehicle and Equipment Safety) of Title 46.2, as amended, and other provisions of Title 46.2, where applicable, and provisions of Article 2 (§ 18.2-266 et seq.) of Chapter 7 of Title 18.2 of the Code of Virginia, as amended, except those which are felonies or which by their very nature can have no application within the town, are hereby adopted and made a part of this chapter as fully as though set out herein and are hereby made applicable with the town. References therein to "highways of the state" shall be deemed to refer to streets, highways, and alleys within the town. It shall be unlawful for any person within the town to violate or fail, neglect or refuse to comply with any section of the Code of Virginia which is adopted by this section.
Provisions dealing with enforcement and officers
shall be as provided in §§ 46.2-102 and 46.2-103, Code
of Virginia,
Any policeman who shall be in uniform or who
shall exhibit his badge or other sign of authority shall have the
right to stop any motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer, upon request
or signal, for the purpose of inspecting the motor vehicle, trailer
or semitrailer as to its equipment and operation, its manufacturer's
serial or engine number or its contents or load, if such motor vehicle,
trailer or semitrailer is a property-carrying vehicle, or for the
purpose of securing such other information as may be necessary.
Officers of the fire company may direct or assist
the police in directing traffic at or in the immediate vicinity of
a fire and while so acting shall have all the authority of police
officers.
A.
No operator of a vehicle shall drive between the vehicles,
persons or animals comprising a funeral or other authorized procession,
except when otherwise directed by a police officer. This provision
shall not apply to authorized emergency vehicles.
B.
Each driver in a funeral procession shall drive as
near to the right-hand edge of the roadway as is practicable and shall
follow the vehicle ahead as close as is practicable and safe.
A.
All motor vehicles participating in a funeral procession,
when proceeding to any place of burial, shall display illuminated
headlamps thereon and such other identification as the Town Manager
may prescribe.
B.
All motor vehicles so designated shall have the right-of-way
over all other vehicles, except fire apparatus, ambulances and police
vehicles, at any street or highway intersection within the town and
may proceed through a stop street or signalized intersection with
proper caution and safety.
No person shall ride on any vehicle upon any
portion thereof not designed or intended for the use of passengers.
This provision shall not apply to an employee engaged in the necessary
discharge of a duty or to persons riding within truck bodies in space
intended for merchandise.
A.
Whenever any motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer
is found on the public streets or public grounds unattended by the
owner or operator and constitutes a hazard to traffic or is parked
in such manner as to be in violation of law or whenever any motor
vehicle, trailer or semitrailer is left unattended for more than ten
(10) days upon any public property or privately owned property other
than the property of the owner of such motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer
within the town, is abandoned upon such public property or privately
owned property without the permission of the owner, lessee or occupant
thereof or is immobilized on a public roadway by weather conditions
or other emergency situation, any such motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer
may be removed for safekeeping by or under the direction of a police
officer to a storage garage or area, provided that no such vehicle
shall be so removed from privately owned premises without the written
request of the owner, lessee or occupant thereof. The person at whose
request such motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer is removed from
privately owned property shall indemnify the town against any loss
or expense incurred by reason of removal, storage or sale thereof.
Each removal shall be reported immediately to the Chief of Police
and notice thereof given to the owner of the motor vehicle, trailer
or semitrailer as promptly as possible. The owner of such vehicle
or trailer or semitrailer, before obtaining possession thereof, shall
pay to the town all reasonable costs incidental to the removal, storage
and locating the owner of the motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer.
Should such owner fail or refuse to pay the cost or should the identity
or whereabouts of such owner be unknown and unascertainable after
a diligent search has been made and after notice to him at his last
known address and to the holder of any lien of record in the office
of the Division of Motor Vehicles against the motor vehicle, trailer
or semitrailer, the Chief of Police may, after holding the motor vehicle,
trailer or semitrailer sixty (60) days and after due notice of sale,
dispose of the same at public sale, and the proceeds from the sale
shall be forwarded by the Chief of Police to the Town Treasurer, provided
that if the value of such motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer is
determined by three (3) disinterested dealers or garagemen to be less
than fifty dollars ($50.) which would be incurred by such advertising
and public sale, it may be disposed of by private sale or junked.
The Town Treasurer shall pay from the proceeds of sale the cost of
removal, storage, investigation as to ownership and liens and notice
of sale, and the balance of such funds shall be held by him for the
owner and paid to the owner upon satisfactory proof of ownership.
B.
If no claim has been made by the owner for the proceeds
of such sale, after the nonpayment of the above-mentioned cost of
fifty dollars ($50.), the funds may be deposited to the general fund
or any special fund of the town. Any such owner shall be entitled
to apply to the town within three (3) years from the date of such
sale, and if timely application is made therefor, the town shall pay
the same to the owner without interest or other charges. No claim
shall be made nor shall any suit, action or proceeding be instituted
for the recovery of such funds after three (3) years from the date
of such sale.
C.
A motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer or part thereof
shall be presumed to be abandoned if it lacks either a current license
plate or a current town license plate or sticker or a valid state
safety inspection certificate or sticker and it has been in a specific
location for four (4) days without being moved.
A.
Whenever snow, sleet, hail or freezing rain has caused
slippery or hazardous conditions on any of the public streets of the
town, it shall be unlawful for the operator of any motor vehicle to
obstruct or impede other vehicular traffic on any such street by reason
of failure to have the driving wheels of the vehicle operated by him
equipped with adequate snow tires or chains.
B.
Any person found guilty of violating this section
shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars ($10.), nor
more than twenty-five dollars ($25.).
A.
The Town Council may designate intersections at which
vehicles shall come to a full stop or yield the right-of-way and may
cause to be erected appropriate signs or markers at such intersections
so that an ordinarily observant person will be aware of the existence
of such designation.
B.
The Town Council may classify vehicles with reference
to parking and may designate the time, place and manner such vehicles
may be allowed to park on town streets and parking lots and may make
and enforce such additional rules and regulations as parking conditions
may require. When any parking regulation is established pursuant to
this subsection, the Town Council shall cause to be erected appropriate
signs or markers so that an ordinarily observant person who may be
affected by such regulation will be aware of such regulation.
C.
The Town Council may cause appropriate signs and markings
to be erected, placed and maintained, designating residence and business
districts, railway crossings and such other signs and markings upon
the sidewalks and streets as may be deemed necessary to carry out
the provisions of this chapter. It shall have the power to regulate
traffic by means of traffic officers, semaphores or other signaling
devices on any portion of the streets where traffic is heavy or continuous
or where, in its judgment, conditions may require, and may prohibit
other than one-way traffic upon certain streets. It may regulate the
use of the streets by processions or assemblages. It may adopt any
such regulations not in conflict with the provisions of this chapter
as it shall deem advisable and necessary and repeal, amend or modify
any such regulations.
D.
When any regulation is made pursuant to this section
and when appropriate signs or markers have been erected as required
by this section, it shall be unlawful for any person to violate any
such regulation.
For provisions dealing with arrests for violations
of this chapter, release on summons and promise to appear, admitting
to bail and violations, see § 46.2-936, Code of Virginia.
For provisions dealing with the issuance of
a warrant upon failure to comply with a summons and suspension of
licenses for failure to appear, see § 46.2-938, Code of
Virginia.
For provisions dealing with when the arresting
officer shall take a person before a judicial officer in lieu of issuing
a summons, see § 46.2-940, Code of Virginia.[2]
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person to refuse, fail
or neglect to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter or
any rule or regulation promulgated pursuant thereto.
B.
Every person convicted of a violation of any of the
provisions of this chapter or any rule or regulation promulgated pursuant
thereto, for which no other penalty is provided, shall, for a first
conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars
($10.) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.), or by imprisonment
in jail for not less than one (1) nor more than ten (10) days, or
by both such fine and imprisonment; for a second such conviction within
one (1) year, such person shall be punished by a fine of not less
than twenty dollars ($20.) nor more than two hundred dollars ($200.)
or by imprisonment in jail for not less than one (1) nor more than
twenty (20) days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; for a third
or subsequent conviction within one (1) year, such person shall be
punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50.) nor more
than five hundred dollars ($500.) or by imprisonment in jail for not
less than ten (10) days nor more than six (6) months, or by both such
fine and imprisonment.
C.
Whenever a specific penalty is provided in the Code of Virginia for the violation of any section of the Code of Virginia adopted by reference by § 157-3 of this chapter, the penalty for a violation of such section, charged on a town warrant or summons, shall be the same as provided by state statute and shall constitute a traffic infraction as provided under the Code of Virginia.
A.
If any person, having been convicted three (3) times of any offense or offenses set forth below, within a period of ten (10) years, is again convicted of any one (1) of such offenses within such five-year period, he shall, in addition to the penalty otherwise prescribed by law for such offense, be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100.) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.) and confined in jail not less than three (3) months nor more than twelve (12) months. The offenses for a fourth conviction of which such penalties may be imposed are the following: violations within this state of §§ 18.2-266, 46.1-176, 46.1-191 and 46.1-350, Code of Virginia, within the town of §§ 157-19 and 157-26 of this Code, when charged on a town warrant or summons, or of any similar ordinance of any county, city or town in the state, and manslaughter involving the operation of a motor vehicle, voluntary or involuntary, provided that for the purposes of this section where more than one (1) manslaughter conviction results from a single act or omission, then only the first such conviction shall constitute an offense.
B.
In addition to the penalties set forth in the preceding
subsection, if any person is convicted of a fourth offense as therein
provided, the court in which such conviction is had shall revoke the
operator's or chauffeur's license of such person for a period of five
(5) years.
[Added 7-27-2020]
As ordained by the Town Council, there shall be an additional
assessment of $5 as part of the costs on all traffic and criminal
violations in which the defendant is convicted by or in the appropriate
court of violating an ordinance or statute of the town, county, or
state after having been charged with the violation by the Town of
Hillsville Police Department. The fee assessment shall be $5 for convictions
in both the circuit courts and the district courts of the county.
The assessment shall be collected by the clerk of the respective court,
remitted to the Town Treasurer and held by the Town Treasurer subject
to disbursements by the Town of Hillsville Council to the Town of
Hillsville Police Department solely to fund software, hardware, and
associated equipment costs for the implementation and maintenance
of an electronic summons system.
[Amended 8-8-1984]
For provisions dealing with signing and possession
of registration cards, exhibiting of registration card and operator's
etc., licenses and failure to carry a license or registration card,
see § 46.2-104, Code of Virginia.
A.
For provisions dealing with the attachment and display
of state license plates, see §§ 46.2-715 and 46.2-716,
Code of Virginia.
B.
It shall be unlawful for any person to operate upon
a street in the town a pickup or panel truck, tractor truck, trailer
or semitrailer with a name on it other than the owner's or lessee's
name thereon; provided, however, that advertising material thereon
for another pursuant to a valid contract is not prohibited.
