ROCKINGHAM, Vt. (AP) – Ticketed for not being in the driver’s seat, a rural letter carrier has beaten the charge in court.
Myra Lawlor, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service, was cited last January after a Bellows Falls police officer saw her sitting in the middle of the front seat of her car as she drove from house to house, reaching through the passenger’s side window to put mail in mailboxes.
Lawlor fought the $194 ticket, and Vermont Judicial Bureau Judge Stephen Fine ruled last week that Lawlor was exempt from a Vermont law that requires drivers to be directly behind the steering wheel at all times.
He said states can’t interfere with the “efficient operation” of federal agencies, such as the Postal Service.
“(T)here is no dispute about the fact that, to require the defendant to remain seated behind the wheel, while moving from box to box, would substantially interfere with the speedy and prompt delivery of the United States mail,” Fine said in his decision.
Bellows Falls Police Chief Keith Clark said Tuesday he hadn’t seen the decision and could not rule out an appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court.
Fine said no rural mail carrier in Vermont had ever been ticketed for not sitting behind the wheel since 1973, when the law was enacted. Lawlor also has a perfect safety record, Fine wrote.
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