A February plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., was tragic and preventable. Fatigue affecting the flight crew may have contributed. The National Transportation Safety Board held hearings just months after the investigation, and rightly so. The media coverage was widespread, and rightly so.Five thousand people die and 100,000 are injured in heavy truck crashes every year. […]
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Posted inOpinion
Preventable tragedies
A February plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., was tragic and preventable. Fatigue affecting the flight crew may have contributed. The National Transportation Safety Board held hearings just months after the investigation, and rightly so. The media coverage was widespread, and rightly so. Five thousand people die and 100,000 are injured in heavy truck crashes every […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, sj-web
Truck weight bills compete in Congress
A pair of bills headed to Congress will present opposing viewpoints on the weight of trucks that should be allowed on Maine highways.U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud has sponsored a bill that would allow Maine and other states to increase the weight of trucks allowed on the interstate system. That measure would allow industries in Maine […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
State is wrong to yield on truck weights
Heavier trucks mean more crashes, deterioration of Maine’s highways Recent actions by Gov. John Baldacci and other state elected leaders are more than discouraging. In fact, Maine residents and users of the roadways should be greatly concerned over the fact that truck weights have increased for a certain segment of the trucking industry – the […]
Posted inBusiness
Court KOs trucking rules
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a Bush administration decision to allow long-haul truckers to drive for up to 11 hours straight.For 60 years, truckers could drive for 10 hours at a time. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been trying to change the rule to allow truckers another […]
Posted inNation / World
Fatalities remain over 100 a week
WASHINGTON (AP) – More than 100 people a week are killed in large truck crashes in this country, according to safety groups that called Monday for reducing how long big-rig drivers can work without rest.Wyoming, Arkansas and Oklahoma are the deadliest states for big truck crashes; Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut are the safest, according […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
Editorial about heavy trucks based on ‘misinformation’
The Sun Journal editorial “Heavier trucks should be allowed north of Augusta” (Sept. 15), advocating 100,000-pound trucks from Augusta to the Canadian border on I-95 is based on wishful thinking, suppositions that have been repeatedly disproved, and misinformation supplied by our own Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine trucking industry.There is no plan, either […]
Posted inOur View, sj-web
Heavier trucks should be allowed north of Augusta
Safety on Maine’s highways is important, but blocking a weight-limit increase for commercial trucks on the interstate for safety concerns is shortsighted.Sen. Olympia Snowe, transportation officials and others wish to allow 100,000-pound trucks onto the interstate north of the capital. The current limit is 80,000 pounds, and truck-safety advocates feel an increase jeopardizes safety and […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Ditch plan for bigger rigs on I-95, groups urge state
PORTLAND – A coalition of advocacy groups said Wednesday that raising truck weight limits on the interstate in northern Maine would make the highway more dangerous and serve as a steppingstone to higher weight limits in other states.Efforts to allow trucks up to 100,000 pounds on federal highways in Maine are misguided and a threat […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
Nightmare
“Eleven hours at a time” (Aug. 20) sounds like it could be a movie title. It is very much reality for long-haul truck drivers, thanks to the Bush administration. The Federal Motor Carrier Association ruled truck drivers can work 14-hour days, 11 of which can be driving. It is nearly identical to the rule that […]