* DC - A bill relaxing truck safety rules in Congress would endanger the public
-- With the number of fatal accidents involving tractor-trailers on the rise, now would seem like the wrong time to consider relaxing truck safety rules in the United States. Yet that is exactly where Congress appears to be headed — and proponents are trying to accomplish this maneuver in an unusually stealthy manner... Attached as a policy rider to the $55 billion Transportation, Housing and Urban Development fiscal 2016 appropriations bill now being considered by the full U.S. House of Representatives is a provision allowing truck drivers to work longer hours, haul larger double-trailers in every state and prevent the U.S. Department of Transportation from raising minimum insurance requirements from the current standards, which haven't been adjusted in 30 years... It's one thing for Congress to debate truck safety and face the reality of 4,000 people killed and 100,000 injured each year in truck-involved crashes, including a 17 percent increase in fatalities and 28 percent increase in injuries over a four-year period, but it's quite another to do so without a full-scale hearing, which is what the House has done... It also seems blatantly hypocritical for a Republican-controlled Congress to force states to soften their own truck safety rules... Polls show Americans aren't much interested in relaxing truck safety rules either — perhaps because they know that in crashes involving trucks and cars, more than 95 percent of driver and passenger fatalities are borne by those in the cars...
(Photo: Car and Truck Accident. Automobile collisions are the most common cause of serious personal injuries and wrongful death claims in Texas) -- Washington, DC, USA - The Baltimore Sun - 3 June 2015Labels: accidents, truck safety
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