Tickets To Be Voided For Blm Firefighters Two Water Trucks Were Detained Near Cda For Being Overweight

Kootenai County prosecuting attorneys say they will drop charges against two Bureau of Land Management firefighters who were ticketed because their water trucks were overweight.

On Aug. 14, BLM employees Mark Yeiter, 44, and Keith Walton, 45, were stopped at the Huetter weigh station as they were headed to fight wildfires in Montana.

Yeiter and Walton, both of Salem, Ore., were detained for about an hour at the weigh station just west of Coeur d’Alene, delaying them from fighting the raging fires in the Bitterroot valley.

A weigh station officer ticketed both men because their trucks exceeded 34,000 pounds at the rear axles. The officer also asked them to dump the excess water.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s office contacted the Idaho Transportation Department as soon as the governor became aware of the incident.

Kootenai County Chief Prosecutor Bill Douglas said his office will dismiss the charges later this week or early next week because the tickets were issued during an emergency.

However, Douglas defended the port of entry officer’s actions.

“The officer was doing his job,” he said. “The officer was concerned for the safety of the motoring public.”

“If those water trucks had gotten into an accident because of their weight, the state of Idaho would have been liable,” Douglas said.

The trucks, which had federal license plates and were marked as BLM vehicles, wouldn’t have been delayed if proper procedures had been followed, Douglas said.

“The BLM neglected to go through the proper permitting process,” he said.“The whole thing could have been avoided.”

BLM officials could have applied for a permit from the Idaho Transportation Department and would have received clearance, he said.

The U.S. attorney’s office has been contacted by the BLM, but no services have been retained, said Jean McNeil, spokeswoman in the BLM’s Boise office.

“We’ve not reached that point yet,” she said.

Monday, McNeil said she doubted the case would go forward, considering the emergency nature of the incident. But, she added, “I’m not sure why it’s taken so long.”