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Little-known Ohio law makes warming up cars illegal
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: December 30, 2013
Winter is here! While many people may think that they should warm up their cars before heading out in the morning, a little-known Ohio law makes it illegal for drivers to do so.
However, very few, if any, local law enforcement personnel have ever heard of this statute being enforced. In fact, very few of them have even heard of the law before they were asked questions about it.
In fact, one local police chief expressed surprise that the law even exists. Thomas Pozza, the police chief in Cuyahoga Falls who recently announced his retirement, simply said, “What?” when asked about the law.
Ohio Revised Code section 4511.661 states: “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 from the ignition, effectively setting the parking brake, and, when the motor vehicle is standing upon any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway.”
The first offense is a minor misdemeanor, and subsequent offenses scale up in severity to a third-degree misdemeanor.
There is no official word on how or why this law exists.
The law was originally passed in 2004, and is set to expire in 2017. Note that 2004 is well before the current wave of remote car starters got underway.
A reading of the annotations for this law in the statutes reveals no legislative history or commentary and no court decisions.
There are a few decisions based on a previous wording of this statutory section, but nothing relevant to this current language.
In limited public analysis, various people have suggested that the law is intended for safety, or as an anti-theft measure.
Other cold-weather states and cities have their own approaches to cold-weather car warm-up. Neither Minnesota nor Wisconsin has state anti-idling laws, but some of their larger cities do. Even though the Mall of America’s parking lot may be filled with idling cars in winter, the city of Minneapolis bans empty-car idling. But the punishment in Minneapolis is not a ticket—the police are only authorized to take the keys to the police station.
The city of Toronto bans warming up cars for more than three minutes altogether, with or without a driver inside.
The physics of warming up a car are apparently open to debate.
General Motors, in a press release encouraging remote starters, recently said that warming up a car actually reduces pollutants, “because the catalyst that traps the unburned hydrocarbons only activates once the engine is warm.”
Other parties weighing in on the topic disagree, including the U.S. EPA, which has stated in a report that, “[m]odern vehicles need little warm-up. Idling for long periods in cold weather can actually cause excessive engine wear.”
Safety is another concern, said the Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Roger F. Classen, who, among other commentators, pointed out that a car is safer when its windows are clear of frost and ice.
Whatever the reasoning, or lack thereof, behind this statute, local police departments are charged with its enforcement. Some municipalities, like Stow (351.07) and Cuyahoga Falls (351.15), have mirror ordinances of R.C. 4511.661.
But even so, the statute, state or local, is rarely, if ever enforced.
“I am not aware of any tickets written (under these laws),” said Stow Police Chief Louis Dirker.
Chief Dirker added himself to the list of people who do not know the underlying logic of this law, and pointed out that the language of the law does not include keyless, remote starters. “This is another issue. Safety is built into that system.” But remote starters have no place in the language of the statute. If there is no key, how could it be “removed from the ignition?”
The real question, though, is enforcing the law, and Kent Police Lt. Jim Prusha and department communications officer said, to that point, “we have discretion. I don’t see anyone (getting a ticket) for warming up a car in a driveway. Now, if a car is warming up in front of a bar downtown at 2 in the morning, that may be a different. But I don’t see any of our officers giving someone a ticket.”
Prusha has run into the situation of a running car with no apparent owner “once or twice,” he said. After doing whatever they can to find the owner, he said, “we will take the key to the station and leave a note on the car.”
Just like in Minneapolis.