what is the purpose of weigh scales on the interstate/highways
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Trucks have a maximum load capacity set by law in order to help keep everyone safe on the roads. Weigh stations on the interstates/highways are used to help enforce those maximum load capacities.
Overloaded trucks are a risk to everyone else on the roads. They take longer to stop and have a much higher risk of brake failure. The extra weight damages roadways and can cause bridges to become damaged and unsafe or even collapse*. And if a truck is loaded past the maximum load capacity of the vehicle itself then it can cause major disruptions to traffic when the truck suffers a potentially catastrophic failure – e.g. a semi-trailer breaking it’s coupling to the semi-trailer truck causing it to go out of control and spread it’s load across the roadway or the main chassis beams of a rigid truck breaking under the stress causing the vehicle to break in two.
*there is a bridge near me that has been damaged over time by heavy semi-trailers driving over it which resulted in traffic being limited to just a single lane over the bridge. Things got to the point where they were forced to replace the bridge causing massive traffic delays on the major highway because even the limited traffic was threatening to collapse the bridge.
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