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Oct 22, 2009

OPINION * USA - Dan Rather blasts trucking, industry blasts back

Dan Rather took the trucking industry head-on Oct. 20 during his weekly program on HDNet, especially blasting driver recruiting and competency ...

New Y7ork,NY,USA -The Trucker By LYNDON FINNEY -22 Oct 2009: ... And it didn’t take industry officials long to take Rather head-on... Rather used three primary sources to build his case that a lot of men and women become drivers as a last resort, and that drivers are basically put in a cab and sent out on the highway... "Their sources were suspect, a disgruntled trucking company employee, a disgruntled driver who presented rumor as fact, the Americans for Highway and Auto Safety with its routine recitation of erroneous stats. I do not trust any one of them,” Clayton Boyce, the American Trucking Associations’ vice president of public affairs, said the day after the episode aired... The program’s producers went to Las Vegas to interview Dave Osiecki, ATA’s vice president of safety, during the organization’s annual meeting... “The circumstance where a person can go and take a one-hour, two-hour, eight-hour training course, operate a truck around the block and then go pass a test, that’s a problem in oversight,” one of two short clips of the interview with Osiecki said... “They cut down Dave Osiecki’s interview to eliminate statistics that show trucking is much, much safer and getting safer every year,” Boyce said... Rather did refer to Osiecki’s comment that trucking was as safe as ever, but then followed with an interview from safety advocate Jerry Donaldson, research director for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety... “If it's safe as it's ever been, then it isn't a very good story because it's not very safe,” Donaldson told Rather. “We've averaged about 5,000 deaths over the past decade. Those numbers have not significantly changed in many years. The fatal crash rate is still the highest of any type of surface transportation. So unfortunately, the same disproportionate impact on human lives and suffering is the same now as it has been for many years” ... “Overall it was very biased against trucking,” Boyce concluded... (Photo: Dan Rather)

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