Truck safety advocates are rallying against proposals to allow longer and heavier tractor-trailers on American highways.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan group of House members recently passed an amendment to H.R. 7 that will cut restrict the ability of trucking companies to fill the highways with heavier and more dangerous trucks.<\/p>\n
The amendment also struck a provision in the bill called the \u201cstate option\u201d that would have allowed states to individually increase the weight limit for trucks by 17,000 pounds from 80,000 to 97,000. Opponents of the state option argued that each state legislature would be intimidated into signing the increase for fear of being seen as anti-business.<\/p>\n
Statistics show that the heavier the trucks get, the less safe the roads become. Even though highway crash fatalities fell in 2010 to their lowest numbers since the 1940s, truck crash fatalities jumped 8.7 percent. In 2010, there were 3,675 people killed in accidents involving trucks \u2013 up from (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Truck safety advocates are rallying against proposals to allow longer and heavier tractor-trailers on American highways. A bipartisan group of House members recently passed an amendment to H.R. 7 that will cut restrict the ability of trucking companies to fill…<\/span><\/p>\n