"wbarwell" <wbarwell@mylinuxisp.com> wrote
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_ G O D _ wrote:



*****!

Barwell, is ***** - your other name I should call you by?

Trucker Rules Endanger Others on Roads, Groups Say
by David Kassabain

http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=6170

Washington
Truckers with a long way to go and a short time to
get there are putting more motorists in danger due
to loose enforcement of revised trucking rules,
several activist groups said. Five family members
of relatives killed in accidents involving trucks spoke
at a news conference and called for stricter rules
on the maximum number of consecutive hours a
truck driver can operate a vehicle before stopping
for mandatory rest. They also sought tougher current
laws and warned against future revisions to the
hours laws that might be added to the Department
of Transportation appropriations bill.
"Too many trucks on our highways are sweatshops
on wheels," said Joan Claybrook, president of the
consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "Large
trucks are rolling time-bombs on our highways with
tired truckers allowed to work 14 and 16 hours a day
under the new Department of Transportation rules.
The result is drivers are pushed far beyond their
capacity, causing horrific crashes."
Public Citizen is part of the umbrella organization the Truck
Safety Coalition, which hosted Monday's event.
Most provisions to the revised rules Public Citizen and other
groups have labeled as new have actually been in place since
2003, said Patricia Lee, spokeswoman for the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration, the government agency
responsible for issuing the rules and overseeing their
enforcement. The only major change to the revised
hours-of-service rule that took effect Oct. 1 keeps the
mandatory time a driver must rest the same, but requires more
consecutive off time, Lee said. Lee added it's not legal for a
trucker to drive for more than 11 hours in a 24-hour period
under the current regulations. Enforcement is up to states, and
Lee said she could not comment on how well they were doing. "We
support this rule. We think its safe and we think that the
safety numbers are improving," said Tiffany Wlazlowski,
spokeswoman for the American Trucking Associations. "I do think
in the trucking industry that there are a few bad apples who
spoil the bunch." People who label the trucking industry as
"the most dangerous profession" and "sweatshops on wheels" are
just playing into stereotypes of the profession, Wlazlowski
said. In addition to condemning the new regulations, the Truck
Safety Coalition identified states with the highest rate of
truck crash deaths per 100,000 people. Wyoming topped the list,
according to data from the National Center for Statistics and
Analysis, at a rate of 8.09 deaths per 100,000 people. Arkansas
was next with 4, followed by Alabama at 3.6. Massachusetts,
Rhode Island and Hawaii were listed as the safest states, all
at less than one death per 100,000 people. In addition to
criticizing the recently revised rules, members of the Truck
Safety Coalition also said many truckers fraudulently
under-record how many hours they've driven so they can work
longer. "No load of freight, I don't care what it is, is worth
a human life," said Daphne Izer, founder of Parents Against
Tired Truckers. Izer's son, Jeff, was killed on a Maine highway
in 1993 when he was 17 along with three of his friends, Izer
said. "I don't want other parents going through this nightmare
that my husband and I still are trying to live through day by
day. We need to put the brakes on longer work days for truck
drivers," she said.

--
The official spokesman of the Foxes said
today that investigation into what happened
to the henhouse may be needed.

Cheerful Charlie