Parking; tickets for violation; procedure; evidence

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  • (a) No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key and effectively setting the brake thereon and, when standing upon any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the public street or highway.

  • (b) A vehicle shall be considered parked when the vehicle and its motor have been stopped and the driver has left the vehicle.

  • (c) [Repealed.]

  • (d) Motor vehicles shall not be stopped where they impede traffic; and they shall be parked only in places and in the manner designated by the Police Commissioner. No parking space or parking area on any public street or highway shall be reserved for anyone except the handicapped and the following public officials: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Judges of the District and Superior Courts; Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the head of each executive department of the Government. No automobile shall be stopped on a public street or highway nearer than three (3) feet to any automobile already stopped in front or rear of it. Whoever, without a handicapped designation properly affixed to the motor vehicle, parks in a space or area designated for the handicapped shall be fined the sum of one thousand dollars ($1000).

  • (e) Except where angle parking is permitted, every vehicle stopped or parked upon a roadway where there is an adjacent curb shall be so stopped or parked that the wheels of such vehicle nearest the curb shall be parallel to and within 12 inches of the curb.

  • (f) Whenever any motor vehicle without driver is found parked or stopped in violation of any of the restrictions imposed by law or regulations, the officer finding such vehicle shall take note of the make and number plate and may take any other information displayed on the vehicle which may help to identify the vehicle and the person committing the violation, and shall post in a conspicuous place in such vehicle a traffic ticket on the form provided by the rules governing the Superior Court requiring the appearance of said person to make his plea before the Superior Court or the violation clerk on the date specified in the ticket, which date shall not be sooner than five nor later than ten days counting from the date of service of such traffic ticket.

  • If the owner of the motor vehicle is the Government of the Virgin Islands, a complaint shall be filed against the employee to whom the motor vehicle was assigned no later than ten (10) days from the date of service of the traffic ticket if the offender has not appeared in response to such ticket within the prescribed period of time.
  • If the offender does not appear in response to the traffic ticket affixed to such motor vehicle within the period prescribed therein, the complaint shall be filed against the vehicle's owner appearing in the records of the Virgin Islands Police Department (V.I.P.D.). The clerk of the Superior Court shall send to said owner at his last known address, a copy of the complaint admonishing him that should he fail to appear within the term of 10 days counting from the date said copy is mailed, warrant for his arrest will be issued. The case shall continue to be prosecuted through ordinary channels.
  • In any prosecution charging a violation of any law or regulation concerning 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 create a rebuttable presumption that the registered owner of such vehicle was the person who parked or placed such vehicle at the point where, and for the time during which, such violation occurred.
  • (g) No motor vehicle shall be stopped or parked in front of an access ramp to a building where such ramp is marked and delineated as an access for handicapped persons. Whoever violates the provisions of this subsection shall be fined the sum of one thousand dollars ($1000).

  • (h) Every traffic ticket issued pursuant to subsection (f) and (g) of this section shall constitute a lien on the title of the motor vehicle upon which said traffic ticket was placed, which lien shall continue in existence until the traffic ticket is either paid or discharged according to law. The clerk of the Superior Court shall notify the registered owner of the vehicle of the establishment of the lien as well as any other person who has a registered lien upon said vehicle. For purposes of this subsection, notification of the registered owner of the vehicle at his last known address, whether or not received by the addressee, shall constitute legal notice. The clerk of the Superior Court shall keep a registry of the liens created pursuant to this subsection, which shall be open to public inspection. The contents of said registry and updates thereto shall periodically be transmitted to the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department (V.I.P.D.) for purposes of the following paragraph.

  • No motor vehicle shall be registered and licensed pursuant to the provisions of chapter 33 of this title, nor shall a change of ownership be registered by the Commissioner pursuant to said chapter 33 until all liens created pursuant to this subsection have been discharged.
  • (i) The Virgin Islands Department of Public Works shall paint all handicapped access ramps in the mandated blue color so as to make them visible to motorists and shall permanently display on an appropriately painted blue and white sign in the handicapped parking area, the $1000 fine applicable to the violation.


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