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Sep 25, 2009

TRUCK ACCIDENT * Venezuela - Lessons to Learn from Clarines

Once again a state-run company not investing to keep their equipment up to date, in good working order, creating an unsafe work place

Caracas,Venezuela -VenEconomy/The Latin American Herald Tribune -25 Sept 2009: ... Venezuelan authorities dodge their responsibilities by place the blame on third parties. And once again, we seem to be seeing the same pattern of events with how the accident of the truck transporting the 17 cylinders of chlorine gas that occurred last Wednesday, September 16, in the small town of Clarines, Anzoátegui state is being handled. So far, 11 people have died and 300 have been hurt due to the toxic cargo being transported, of which packaging, handling, and transportation is controlled by the Hazardous Waste and Materials Law... Analysts are a bit concerned that up until now, the only person being charged by the District Attorney’s Office is the driver of the truck, as if the secure transportation of hazardous substances and materials didn’t involve the participation of three different sectors (those who handle it, those who transport it, and those who receive it)... And what is even more worrying is that in this case, the company responsible for handling and transporting the hazardous material, is the state-run Pequiven, a branch of PDVSA... The representative of the transportation company also states that it was Pequiven which was in charge of supervising that all security procedures were being followed with regard to the containers, as well as to the state of the cargo... Sadly, it seems that once again we have a case of a state-run company not investing to keep their equipment up to date, in good working order, cutting corners and generally being inefficient and creating an unsafe work place, mainly because these companies are being run based on political criteria and not managerial ones... (Photo from canaldenoticia: Clarines - Zona del Accidente)

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TRUCK ACCIDENTS * Australia - Low pay linked to

Sydney,NSW,Australia -The Armidale Express, by JAMES BELL -25 Sept 2009: -- The Transport Workers Union recently held a summit in Sydney and want to give politicians a chance to study the outcome of the event... Safety expert Professor Michael Quinlan said, had found a direct correlation between low rates of pay and fatalities in truck-related road accidents... The union has approached all levels of government to ensure drivers are paid for all hours worked... Truck-related fatalities totalled 281 last year - an increase of 24 per cent on 2007... While the national road toll has been declining, there has been a steady increase in deaths in the trucking industry... According to the union, the current system of pay being tied to kilometres travelled is a serious problem... Many owner/drivers borrow against homes to pay for vehicles and are under pressure to travel further to cover costs... Local owner/driver Franck Black, said conditions were tougher than ever due to waiting times at retail and supermarket delivery centres... Mr Black said it was not uncommon for drivers to wait at a distribution centre from four to six hours without notice and rest was not possible because ‘we don’t know when we will be called in’... (Photo: Truck driver Frank Black, Armidale Mayor Peter Ducat with the report and Transport Workers Union representative Mick Forbes)

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Feb 15, 2008

Trucker Accident Costs * USA - Governor says taxpayers shouldn't pay for

Middlebury,Conn,USA -Newsday -February 15, 2008: -- Gov. M. Jodi Rell says Connecticut taxpayers shouldn't get stuck paying the tab for the response and cleanup of a tractor-trailer crash off Interstate 84 earlier this week... The accident on the Waterbury/Middlebury town line shut down the highway in both directions for more than 14 hours on Tuesday because of a leak from a compressed hydrogen gas canister on the truck. Rell has directed state agencies to recoup the costs. She says taxpayers should not be on the hook because a trucker carrying hazardous and potentially explosive cargo fell asleep at the wheel... A spokeswoman for truck owner Linde Gas of Murray Hill, N.J., says she doesn't know whether the company's insurance carrier will reimburse anyone...

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