User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Trucks World News
Google
 
Loading

Jul 7, 2014

BLACK SMOKE TRUCKS * USA: WTF ?

* New York - Conservatives are purposely making their cars spew black smoke to protest Obama and environmentalists


NY,USA -Business Insider, by Hunter Walker -July 5, 2014: -- Pickup trucks customized to spew black smoke into the air are quickly becoming the newest weapon in the culture wars... "Coal Rollers" are diesel trucks modified with chimneys and equipment that can force extra fuel into the engine causing dark black smoke to pour out of the chimney stacks. These modifications are not new, but as Slate's Dave Weigel pointed out on Thursday, "rolling coal" has begun to take on a political dimension with pickup drivers increasingly viewing their smokestacks as a form of protest against environmentalists and Obama administration emissions regulations... Last month, Vocativ noted many coal rollers focus their fumes on "nature nuffies," or people who drive hybrids, and "rice burners," or Japanese-made cars... Check out some videos of coal rollers hitting the road and blasting other motorists below: (Video from YouTube, by doug coons - Jul 12, 2013: "Prius"...... like a pesky little mosquito)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 7:01 PM  0 comments

Jun 6, 2014

DANGEROUS TRUCKING * Afghanistan

* Afghanistan - Danger increases for coalition's Afghan truck drivers

(Photo courtesy Faisal Mohammadi Group - A burned fuel tanker after an attack on a truck convoy bound for a coalition military base in Afghanistan. Afghan trucking officials say attacks have increased in the last year, though Afghan government and coalition military officials dispute this claim) 
Kabul,Afghanistan -Stars and Stripes, by Heath Druzin -May 30, 2014: -- The already dangerous roads of Afghanistan may be getting even dicier for drivers carrying goods for coalition military forces: Afghan trucking officials say that attacks on their vehicles have skyrocketed in the past year, since they were forced to switch from private security to government escorts...
(Photo by HEATH DRUZIN/STARS AND STRIPES - A trucker does maintenance on his truck in Kabul. Trucking officials say attacks on their convoys, especially those delivering fuel and goods to coalition military bases, have skyrocketed in the past year) 
Nearly 13 years after the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan and ousted the ruling Taliban — and seven months before all foreign combat troops leave the country — major city centers are generally calm. But much of the road network is still riven by regular Taliban attacks, fake checkpoints and warlords demanding tribute. Insurgents have also regularly used magnetic bombs, which they surreptitiously attach to trucks...
(Photo by HEATH DRUZIN/STARS AND STRIPES: The truck depot at Hewadwal Mayar, a logistics company in Kabul. Hewadwal Mayar officials say inadequate security from government escorts has led to an increase in attacks against its convoys and major financial losses) 
The ramifications go far beyond the bottom line of individual companies — the security of Afghanistan’s primitive road network is crucial to improving the country’s struggling, aid-dependent economy as international military forces withdraw and international donor money begins to dry up... Trucking executives put the blame squarely on the Afghan Public Protection Force, the government-run security service established in 2010 after President, Hamid Karzai, outlawed private armed security firms, alleging they were paying off the Taliban not to target their convoys, staging attacks to drum up business and generally operating outside the law... Truckers and industry officials say not only has government security failed to protect them in the year since the APPF took over convoy escort duties, but that the guards themselves sometimes loot their trucks after attacks...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 6:19 AM  0 comments

May 23, 2014

SAFETY ROADS * USA: Dangerous truckers

* Pensilvania - Trucker column provokes strong reactions

(Photo by Chris Knight/THE MORNING CALL: Three people were killed in this fiery crash on Interstate 78 in Berks County last week when a tractor-trailer in the passing lane smashed into a row of cars from behind) Allentown,PA,USA -The Morning Call, by Paul Carpenter -May 20, 2014: ... "A truck will be in the right lane, then swing out into the left lane in front of a car to pass another vehicle, forcing the car in the left lane to hit the brakes" ... That "is because once [truckers] hit the brakes and lose momentum, it can take them a very long time to build that speed up again … and eat up a lot of fuel." He called on car drivers to just stay out of the way. "Simply back off," TruckerMike said. "Show a little thoughtfulness" ... One of the best ways to reduce dangerous driving by salaried company truckers (independents have incentives of their own to be responsible) might be to heed Shotko's simple and incisive point: Reduce the motive for truckers to be hellbent on bullying everyone out of the way. Require that they be paid by the hour, as done years ago, instead of by the mile...

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 5:15 AM  0 comments

Sep 8, 2009

Dangerous Trucks News * USA - Michigan Attorney says Time to Put the Brakes on

Michigan Attorney, Steve Gursten, has reached his breaking point with bad truckers

Southfield,MI,USA -Lawyers and Settlements, by Brenda Craig -September 7, 2009: ... With years of experience representing people injured or killed by dangerous trucks and truckers in truck accidents and a former president of the Truck Litigation Committee for the American Association of Justice (AAJ), Gursten says he is frankly “disgusted” with what he sees... The lack of safety in the trucking industry is a “national public safety crisis” according to Gursten and he has the facts to back him up... Gursten recently obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) application for his home state of Michigan. Gursten says the documents revealed more startling information about an industry that continues to recklessly roam American roads. “There are 1,072 trucks just in Michigan that have less than satisfactory ratings according to the federal government,” says Gursten, "and about one in four is dangerously out-of-service according to road side checks”... Gursten is a recognized leader in personal injury litigation against truckers and the trucking industry and probably handles more trucking cases than any other attorney in the state of Michigan. His firm has at least 50 cases going through the courts right now.... As Gursten sizes up the situation, financial troubles in both the trucking industry and state agencies are making an already dangerous situation even worse. “You have trucking companies cutting back on safety because money is tight and at the exact same time you have less regulatory authority from state agencies because governments have no money,” he says... Even more troubling to Gursten is Michigan law that prevents courts from awarding punitive damages in personal injury and wrongful death suits against trucking companies--a situation he believes allows trucking companies to take chances they wouldn’t take in other states...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 4:08 AM  0 comments