“No person shall place or knowingly drop upon any part of a highway, lane, road, street, or alley any tacks, bottles, wire, glass, nails, or other articles which may damage or injure any person, vehicle, streetcar, trackless trolley, or animal traveling along or upon such highway, except such substances that may be placed upon the roadway by proper authority for the repair or construction thereof.
Any person who drops or permits to be dropped or thrown upon any highway any destructive or injurious material shall immediately remove the same.
Any person authorized to remove a wrecked or damaged vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley from a highway shall remove any glass or other injurious substance dropped upon the highway from such vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley.
No person shall place any obstruction in or upon a highway without proper authority.” – Ohio Revised Code 4511.74 Effective January 1, 2004
So…It’s against the law for someone to blow their grass clippings onto the road. Right?
“Here’s where people get confused,” said Fulton County Sheriff, Roy Miller. “The county does not have an ordinance, nor does the State of Ohio. The State of Ohio just talks about putting ‘injurious materials’ on the roadway, and if you look at (Ohio Revised Code) 4511.74…that doesn’t mention lawn clippings. We even had the prosecutor look under some case law to try to find it, because this comes up every year, and it never even mentioned this grass or lawn clippings. However, your villages, Wauseon and municipalities, they probably have ordinances – I know they do – against blowing grass clippings in the roadway. However, where the issue comes up is if somebody would wreck or something would happen, and it was found to be because of the negligent homeowner shooting that out into the roadway, then civilly…it’s happened.”
Sheriff Miller went on to recall a lawsuit brought by a Plainfield, Illinois woman who claimed that the motorcycle accident wherein she was injured, was brought about by grass clippings in the road. “So basically the civil liability of the homeowner being negligent is what they should be worried about,” he said. “But as a law, no, there isn’t anything in the Ohio Revised Code that says that they can’t do that. We had a gentleman last week, actually. Somebody videotaped the guy doing it, put it on Facebook and it went viral, but you know we talked to the guy. It was cleaned off to the best of his ability. We talked to him, and we tried to explain to him the liability side of it, and that it could cause accidents and what have you. He seemed to understand; I hope he does. But for me to go back out there and cite him…I couldn’t do it.”
The bottom line is simple; from the standpoint of Ohio Revised Code 4511.74, no state-level law exists prohibiting the blowing of grass clippings onto the street. “We even went further,” Sheriff Miller said, “…and tried to have the prosecutors look up case law to see if they could find anything in there, and basically what it amounts to is if somebody becomes injured, there’s lawsuits.”
Your local municipality may well have something in their codified ordinances banning the practice of blowing grass clippings onto a public thoroughfare, but the State of Ohio has nothing. Therefore, with a criminal conviction not forthcoming at the State level, the best that could be hoped for, barring a local code violation, should such a code exist in that municipality, would be a remedy sought through civil litigation.
Timothy can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com
10 Comments
Grass clippings placed knowingly upon a roadway by highway crew or individual land owner causing potentialp hazardous or unsafe road condition is illegal!
Who does not have the common sense how to mow a lawn??
A bicyclist, automobile, 2 & 3 wheel motorcycles, rescue vehicle, law vehicle etc could be caused to swerve and wrecked at normal speed , especially if it is wet! Intentional repeated littering to cause a likely hazardous condition warrants a citation for causing g potentially safe road conditions !
How difficult is this to understand?
Any driver in America needs to know this!
Except it isn’t actually illegal.
This is absolutely covered in the statute listed above, which is why the wording of the statute was specifically left open with “other injurious substance”.
I can understand a reluctance to prosecute when no accident or injury has resulted. A small amount of grass clippings probably represents no hazard at all, where a significant amount would be hazardous to both motorcycles and cars , especially at intersections or on curves. Still, how does one determine the point at which grass in the roadway becomes hazardous?
That said, it is still a significant problem that bears addressing. It’s certainly something for which warnings could be issued under the state law. Definitely recourse should be more than civil if an injury results. It is, at least, criminally negligent to create a condition in which someone else could be injured. The statute doesn’t address intent, so it doesn’t matter whether the person who left the hazardous material on the roadway had an intent to allow someone else to get hurt, only that they “knowingly placed” the material there.
All of the above aside, why in the world do so many people do this in the first place? It looks horrible. The purpose of mowing and maintaining lawns is to make them look nice, so it doesn’t make sense to do that in a way that looks bad. You run the risk of directly hitting a passerby with debris from the lawn mower, which is also a situation with possible criminal and civil penalties. Additionally, grass clippings can clog up drainage systems, which they are more likely to get to if they are blown into the road.
It’s a bad idea all around, so it would be nice if an article taking the time to clarify that it may not be explicitly prohibited could also spent a few moments addressing how potentially dangerous and rude it is to do, as well.
Not only is it unsafe and irresponsible your lawn would benefit greatly from the lawn clippings.so be a good citizen and put your clippings which are nutrients for your lawn anyways back where they came from.plus you may save a life….bonus…
There are many hazards when operating any motor vehicle. In the fall you will have fallen leaves on the roadway. You must be vigilant in seeing these hazards. Gravel and dirt or sand are always present so slow down on all road ways. Be responsible when you drive and don’t always blame others for your riding or driving skills.
Asshole
Looks like law to me!
4511.74 Placing injurious material on highway.
(A) No person shall place or knowingly drop upon any part of a highway, lane, road, street, or alley any tacks, bottles, wire, glass, nails, or other articles which may damage or injure any person, vehicle, streetcar, trackless trolley, or animal traveling along or upon such highway, except such substances that may be placed upon the roadway by proper authority for the repair or construction thereof.
Any person who drops or permits to be dropped or thrown upon any highway any destructive or injurious material shall immediately remove the same.
Any person authorized to remove a wrecked or damaged vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley from a highway shall remove any glass or other injurious substance dropped upon the highway from such vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley.
No person shall place any obstruction in or upon a highway without proper authority.
(B) No person, with intent to cause physical harm to a person or a vehicle, shall place or knowingly drop upon any part of a highway, lane, road, street, or alley any tacks, bottles, wire, glass, nails, or other articles which may damage or injure any person, vehicle, streetcar, trackless trolley, or animal traveling along or upon such highway, except such substances that may be placed upon the roadway by proper authority for the repair or construction thereof.
(C)
(1) Except as otherwise provided in this division, whoever violates division (A) of this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor. If, within one year of the offense, the offender previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to one predicate motor vehicle or traffic offense, wb.hoever violates division (A) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree. If, within one year of the offense, the offender previously has been convicted of two or more predicate motor vehicle or traffic offenses, whoever violates division (A) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.
(2) Whoever violates division (B) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.
Effective Date: 01-01-2004.
Someone who a badge or is a lawyer doesn’t mean they have common sense or can read. Bruce and others have clearly shown the intent of the law which is to protect personal property but also to protect its citizenry from injuries. I suggest Fulton Co, vote in a Sheriff with some guts to charge people and get a prosecutor that is aggressive and put this law in the courts to validate the issue, instead they hide behind past cases where other lazy fools didn’t want to do the paperwork.
The problem with mowing in the same direction as traffic is that the mowing individual could be hit by a car with no advanced warning. If one mows towards traffic the individual will have a chance to see the oncoming car in time to get out of the way.. The car or bike has the advantage of seeing the gras, leaves, sand or gravel in time to take the necessary precautions. Granted coming around a curve could make this difficult and justify a concern. There have been many times that law enforcement officers have had their cars hit while they have had their lights on. There are courses that teach where your eye looks you may drive there. NASCAR drivers are taught this phenomenon.
They changed the law quite a few years ago, if I remember correctly the previous statue had place any object in the roadway. The legislators had pressure from the construction and oil industry lobbyists to change the law to add injurious. I’m sure even the farmers got into the issue from when they drag dirt onto the roadway. Seems that it was a nuisance for them to clean up their mess off of the road. Just think of the Amish and what their horses leave every day on Ohio’s roads and they don’t even have to have a license plate on those nice buggy’s. Free roads for them use, seems a little unfair to me.