Dear Mahatma: I got a ticket for unauthorized parking in a handicapped spot. Our sedan, which I was driving, doesn't have a plate, but I carry the rear-view mirror placard. I forgot to display the placard when my wife and I went to lunch. Is the offense a failure to display, or parking in the spot without a permit? If the former, I will plead guilty to my second ticket in 55 years of driving. -- Somewhat Aggravated
Dear Somewhat: Arkansas Code Annotated 27-15-305, part of the "Access to Parking for Persons with Disabilities Act," says that a vehicle parked in a handicapped spot "on which is not displayed a special license plate, a special certificate, or an official designation of another state" is subject to impoundment. Also, the owner of the vehicle, if convicted, will be fined not less than $100 or more than $500 for the first offense.
For a second and subsequent offense, the fine is not less than $250 and not more than $1,000.
Plus towing and impoundment fees and court costs.
Ouch. The Mahatma's advice -- his law license comes from the back of a box of Froot Loops -- is to go to court and show the judge documentation of your privilege to park in a handicapped spot, and you plead guilty only to being absent-minded.
Explain that the ticket is small potatoes to the opprobrium dished out by your wife. Yes, my friend, you have suffered enough.
Dear Mahatma: I write in regard to those automobiles with bicycle racks or long trailer hitches that protrude from the rear end of their vehicles. There used to be a law that required a red flag be attached to anything hanging out the back. Is there a law? Is it enforced? -- Frustrated Dodger
Dear Dodger: There still is a law. It's Arkansas Code Annotated 27-37-204, "Lamp or flag on projecting load."
From one half-hour after sunset to one half hour before sunrise, the law says that any load projecting more than 4 feet from the rear of a vehicle's body or bed shall display a red light or lantern plainly visible from a distance of at least 500 feet. This is in addition to the rear red lights required on every vehicle.
At any other time "there shall be displayed at the extreme rear end of the load a red or fluorescent orange flag or cloth not less than sixteen inches square."
As we have said before, the part about an extreme rear end makes us laugh like an 8-year-old.
Four feet is a considerable distance. Would a typical bike rack or trailer hitch extend that far?
As for enforcement, hard to say without contacting all of the 1.2 million state, county and local police agencies in Arkansas. We did ask Chief Ron Burks of the Arkansas Highway Police. In calendar year 2014, he said, his agency issued 17 tickets and 11 warnings, the vast majority issued to log truck drivers.
Vanity plate seen on a pickup: BEATNVY. We concur. Fight on, brave Army team.
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 01/24/2015