Issue Position: Truck Safety

Issue Position

As chairman of the House Transportation Appropriations subcommittee from 1995 -- 2000, I grew increasingly concerned about the number of truck-related accidents on our nation's highways. At my urging, Congress in 2000 created the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to help make our nation's highways safer. In carrying out its mandate to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses, FMCSA develops and enforces data-driven regulations that balance truck and bus companies safety with efficiency; harnesses safety information systems to focus on higher risk carriers in enforcing the safety regulations; targets educational messages to carriers, commercial drivers and the public; and partners with stakeholders including federal, state, and local enforcement agencies, the motor carrier industry, safety groups, and organized labor on efforts to reduce bus and truck-related crashes.

I have participated in a number of truck inspections on highways in and around the 10th District. What I have seen is frightening. Truck with little or no brakes. Baloney-skinned tires. Fraudulent log books. During one inspection, of the 14 trucks inspected that day, nine -- ranging from tractor trailers to garbage trucks -- failed inspection and were immediately taken out of service and either repaired on site or towed to another location. They are prohibited from being driven from the inspection site until they are repaired.

Our families, friends and neighbors face these dangers on a daily basis as they drive along our highways. To think that many of the heavy trucks on our roads are driving illegally is an alarming fact that cannot be ignored.

Clearly, not all accidents involving trucks are the fault of the truck driver and most truck drivers -- and trucking companies -- are honest, law abiding and hardworking. However, ensuring that the trucks traveling up and down our highways and through our neighborhoods are safe will certainly result in fewer accidents and save lives.

Source