The June 28 edition of The Informer said it was illegal for tires to extend out farther than the fenders. Are the cone-shaped hubcaps or rims that stick out on cars legal?

The rims and hubcaps — which The Informer last wrote about in June 2015 — aren’t illegal unless they cause the car to exceed the state’s vehicle-width limit, which is 102 inches, or 81⁄2 feet.

State Rep. Terry Landry, D-New Iberia, in 2013 sponsored a bill to ban the rims, which he said were dangerous. The measure, House Bill 170, passed in the House by a vote of 86-5, but later died in a Senate committee. 

The bill would have amended Revised Statute 32:362, making it illegal to equip vehicles with “wheel nuts, hubcaps, or wheel discs extending outside the body of the vehicle when viewed from directly above” if they “incorporate winged projections” or “constitute a hazard to pedestrians or cyclists.”

“I want to make it perfectly clear, for me this is not about style. It’s about public safety,” Landry told The Daily Iberian ahead of the 2013 legislative session.

“It’s about a pedestrian, it’s about a bicyclist, it’s about people driving with these wheels that are sticking out beyond the side mirrors of the car.”

To recap

What The Informer wrote Wednesday in response to a question on the legality of truck tires that extend beyond fenders:

“Every motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle, when operated upon a highway of this state, shall be equipped with fenders, covers, or such devices, including flaps or splash aprons, or fender flares to effectively minimize the spray or splash of water or mud or loose material on the highways to the rear of the vehicle unless the body of the vehicle or attachments thereto afford such protection,” reads Louisiana R.S. 32:364.

“The width of such fenders, covers, or other devices shall be at least the width of the tires of the motor vehicle.”

The law doesn’t apply to vehicles that weigh less than 1,500 pounds, “vehicles which were not supplied with the equipment … at the time of manufacture, nor to trucks and farm vehicles handling and hauling agricultural and forestry products.”

The part on fender width was added to the law in 2003.

Online: http://legis.la.gov.

Laneaux postmaster of Lake Charles

Does Lake Charles have a postmaster?

Yes.

And Gerald Laneaux is his name.

Online: www.usps.com.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.