Dramatic Increase in Truck Weight Limits Proposed
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The trucking industry is pushing Congress to pass a bill allowing significantly longer, heavier trucks on roads. A coalition of families of truck accident victims, politicians and labor unions is fighting to stop the proposed legislation.
The coalition's focus is on a proposed increase in truck weight limits from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds, an increase of more than 21 percent.
U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., is proposing a bill to maintain current truck weight limits.
"Heavier, unsafe trucks pose significant dangers to our driving public and to our roads and bridges. Our deteriorating infrastructure can ill afford the crushing damage that heavier trucks inflict, and motorists should not be subjected to such enormous risks," McGovern said in a statement.
The legislation allowing for bigger, heavier trucks would mandate that commercial trucks pulling 97,000-pound loads have six axles rather than five. Proponents of the weight increase argue that the extra axle would help truckers with braking.
Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, disagrees. "Truckers know from firsthand experience that stability, mobility and maneuverability are substantially reduced on bigger and heavier trucks. The larger and heavier the vehicle, the more problems it has interacting with other vehicles on the highway. Increases in sizes and weights of commercial motor vehicles will also hasten the deterioration of our nation's roads and bridges," he said in a statement. A single 80,000-pound tractor-trailer now does as much damage to pavement as 9,600 cars.
Jane Mathis, a member of the Truck Safety Coalition, lost her 23-year-old son and his wife to an accident with a truck. In a statement, she said, "Every day, I live with the fact that a big truck crashed into my child's car and killed him and his new wife. David and Mary Kathryn had just embarked upon a new life together and it was taken from them. We don't need bigger trucks, we need safer trucks. If large trucking companies and their lobbyists have their way, American families will be the ones to pay."
Source: Dallas W. Hartman P.C.
Website: http://www.dallashartman.com
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