Bigger Trucks On The Road

Brooks Schuelke

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Trucking dangers continue.  Yesterday I posted that many truck drivers are allowed to drive even after failing drug tests.  And now, the trucking lobby is seeking permission to use larger tractor-trailers.  Apparently the coalition, creatively named Americans for Safe and Efficient Transportation, is asking Congress to start a pilot program to experiment with larger, heavier trucks.  While Texas is not yet in the proposed pilot area, the article suspects that we'll be named later.

Now I don't know about you, but I think the tractor-trailers driving down I35 through the middle of Austin are plenty big.  Apparently, I'm not the only one that thinks it's a bad idea.  Teamsters president Jim Hoffa had this to say:

The idea of letting bigger trucks on the road is just crazy.  They're extremely dangerous and they ruin our roads and bridges, which are already in bad shape.

I can't imagine a worse time to promote this idea. Our infrastructure is falling apart and the highway fund is running out of money, and they want to allow trucks that do more damage to roads and bridges?

Joan Claybrook, the president of Public Citizen, had this to say about the safety:

Apparently, there is no limit to the trucking and shipping industries’ desire to push the bounds of common sense and what our roads and bridges can handle. Their lobbyists will have you believe that bigger trucks will mean fewer trucks … Instead, the number of trucks on U.S. highways has consistently grown during the past few decades, even after many federal and state increases in both the size and weight of large trucks.