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North Carolina * USA - Panel OKs longer trucks
Tractor-trailers as long as 53 feet would be free to travel most state roads
Raleigh,NC,USA -The News & Observer, by Bruce Siceloff -June 13 2008: -- Tractor-trailers as long as 53 feet, now restricted to major highways in North Carolina, would be free to travel most state roads under legislation that will go to the floor of the state Senate next week... The Senate Finance Committee approved far-reaching measures Thursday to relax safety limits on the length of trucks and to allow wider boats and heavier log and cotton trucks on state roads... The state Highway Patrol warned that longer trucks pose hazards for other drivers, especially on tortuous mountain roads. Sen. Clark Jenkins of Edgecombe County, who sponsored the bill, agreed that some mountain roads should be off-limits but said the safety concerns were overstated... An N.C. State University transportation research director said legislators were moving too quickly. Ron Hughes of NCSU's Institute for Transportation Research and Education cited a study of long trucks on winding mountain roads conducted last spring by NCSU, the Department of Transportation and the Highway Patrol. "It would be clear to anyone who saw this that a truck that large is certainly too big for the road," he said in an interview. "It crosses the center line. It drags its rear axle off the side of the road, destroying the edge of the pavement. People were having to pull off the road until the truck passed by. This is just a disaster waiting to happen," Hughes said... Jenkins said DOT engineers would be free to recommend certain roads as unsafe for the long trucks... He said DOT officials have been overly strict in limiting 53-foot trucks...
Labels: Longer Heavier Vehicles (LHVs)
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