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Truck Laws to get tougher ,,,,,,,,,,
Families push truck safety Posted: Monday, May 04, 2009 12:46 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: Congress
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Families of victims killed in accidents with trucks are pressing Congress to stop the trucking industry's efforts to allow heavier, longer vehicles on the roads.
"Federal rules for truck safety are not strong enough," said Joan Claybrook, chairwoman of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, or CRASH, at a news conference on Capitol Hill today. She spoke with four families of victims of truck-related accidents.
Claybrook, who was also with the umbrella group, the Truck Safety Coalition, announced the group is launching StopBiggerTrucks.org and is urging people to sign a petition online. The group's news conference was in conjunction with its "Sorrow to Strength" conference for survivors of crashes and family members of victims.
The group is particularly opposed to proposed increases in truck weight limits from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds, a more than 20% increase. The industry argues that trucks have gotten safer, that bigger trucks means less of them on the road and that the number of truck-related deaths decreased from 2007 to 2009.
The coalition argues that even though deaths have decreased from 2007 to 2009, up to 2007 about 5,000 people per year died in truck-related deaths.
"Legislators would never tolerate this many airline deaths," said Jackie Gillan, of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
They also argue that bigger trucks mean increased risk and don’t translate to fewer trucks on the road.
The nation's roads are "public highways," not the trucking industry's "private freight ways," Gillan said.
They also called for a tough regulator of the industry. They want electronic on-board monitoring devices to be able to enforce the number of hours, for example, driven by truckers.
"We don't need a lapdog," Gillan said. "We need a bulldog. We need a bulldog."
The highway bill is slated to come up in the first week of June, according to a Transportation Committee spokesperson.
It was an emotional news conference with each of the four families detailing the stories of their family members deaths and calling for action. There were even friends of victims in the crowd who came up to be with the family, including three friends of a University of Maryland senior, Channing Quinnichett, who was killed in January on the Washington Beltway near College Park when a truck tire fell off a tow truck and smashed into her windshield. Quinnichett was also pregnant and the unborn child also died.
"This is a very difficult time for us," said Channing's mother, Tracy, who wore a button with her daughter's photo on her lapel. She added, "We're just here today to prevent other families from feeling the same."
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The trucking industry is already the highest regulated industry in the country and now here's another group that wants to add more reg's and laws.
Let's look at each wreck on a case by case basis and see the entire story before we are faced with more rules and laws.
Filed Under: Congress
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Families of victims killed in accidents with trucks are pressing Congress to stop the trucking industry's efforts to allow heavier, longer vehicles on the roads.
"Federal rules for truck safety are not strong enough," said Joan Claybrook, chairwoman of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, or CRASH, at a news conference on Capitol Hill today. She spoke with four families of victims of truck-related accidents.
Claybrook, who was also with the umbrella group, the Truck Safety Coalition, announced the group is launching StopBiggerTrucks.org and is urging people to sign a petition online. The group's news conference was in conjunction with its "Sorrow to Strength" conference for survivors of crashes and family members of victims.
The group is particularly opposed to proposed increases in truck weight limits from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds, a more than 20% increase. The industry argues that trucks have gotten safer, that bigger trucks means less of them on the road and that the number of truck-related deaths decreased from 2007 to 2009.
The coalition argues that even though deaths have decreased from 2007 to 2009, up to 2007 about 5,000 people per year died in truck-related deaths.
"Legislators would never tolerate this many airline deaths," said Jackie Gillan, of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
They also argue that bigger trucks mean increased risk and don’t translate to fewer trucks on the road.
The nation's roads are "public highways," not the trucking industry's "private freight ways," Gillan said.
They also called for a tough regulator of the industry. They want electronic on-board monitoring devices to be able to enforce the number of hours, for example, driven by truckers.
"We don't need a lapdog," Gillan said. "We need a bulldog. We need a bulldog."
The highway bill is slated to come up in the first week of June, according to a Transportation Committee spokesperson.
It was an emotional news conference with each of the four families detailing the stories of their family members deaths and calling for action. There were even friends of victims in the crowd who came up to be with the family, including three friends of a University of Maryland senior, Channing Quinnichett, who was killed in January on the Washington Beltway near College Park when a truck tire fell off a tow truck and smashed into her windshield. Quinnichett was also pregnant and the unborn child also died.
"This is a very difficult time for us," said Channing's mother, Tracy, who wore a button with her daughter's photo on her lapel. She added, "We're just here today to prevent other families from feeling the same."
======================================
The trucking industry is already the highest regulated industry in the country and now here's another group that wants to add more reg's and laws.
Let's look at each wreck on a case by case basis and see the entire story before we are faced with more rules and laws.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Dean on -
According to the ATA, fatal truck crashes dropped 19.5% from 1997 to 2006. According to a AAA Foundation study, in fatal crashes involving a truck and another vehicle, police assigned one or more unsafe driving factors to the driver of the passenger vehicle and no factors to the truck driver in 75% of the cases. 35% of these occurred in the trucks blind spot.
My heart goes out to families who have lost loved ones in these accidents. One death is too many. One death caused by a truck driver is too many. I have serious issues with the 3 week or short time basis truck driver training schools. There should be at least one entire week spent just on safety training alone.
However, it isn't just trucking that needs more training. Clearly drivers of automobiles need extensive safety training on how to drive around trucks. Too many driver's "hang out" in the blind areas around big trucks, race around and cut in front of, brake hard in front of and perform many other unsafe acts.
My heart goes out to Channing Quinnichett's family. Clearly the tow truck driver did not make sure there were no dangers to the public from his vehicle. However, my question is, was he the only person with a duty to drive safely? Had Channing Quinnichett been taught how to maneuver around big vehicles? Had she been "shadowing", "hanging out" around the tow truck? Maybe not. Maybe the accident occurred as she was passing by in a safe manner. Or maybe she was driving in the other direction. But if she was "hanging out" around the truck, as many do, then she lacked adequate safety training about how to maneuver around large vehicles. How not to "hang out" around them but to either back off and follow from a safe distance or to speed up and go on around the vehicle in a safe manner.
Much more driver safety training for not only professional drivers but also for the general public should be mandated before anyone can get a license to drive an automobile or a large vehicle. For those already with a drivers license, insurance companies and trucking companies would be ahead financially and many lives could be saved if they would provide additional safety classes. Many trucking companies already do. But in my humble opinion, safety is a two way street. The automobile driver needs more safety training too.
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Permalink Reply by dan Little on -
Very well put.
We have contacted the people above and requested the police reports from all 5000 wrecks and stated we would hire an outside firm to review each wreck to find out who truly was at fault.
To date they have not contacted us back.
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Permalink Reply by Mike on -
I am against the weight increase. I have to agree with the families on this one. 40 tons is plenty of weight for one vehicle. I was on the NY Thruway a while back, and saw a full-size double have a hard time slowing down when a wreck occurred in front of him. The only way he made it was to take to the shoulder, and ride it past stopped traffic. Sorry, but 80k is more than enough for one vehicle.
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