Illinois Truck Accidents: Truck Safety Coalition Speaks Out Against Heavier Loads
Truck safety advocates don’t want tractor-trailers to be allowed to carry heavier loads on highways. This could happen if a new transportation bill currently making its way through the US Congress is approved. While at a news conference earlier this month, Joan Claybrook of the Truck Safety Coalition called this a “public health crisis.”
The group is among a number of safety advocates that are fighting the bill and want Congress to enact H.R. 1617 and S.779, a bi-partisan effort that would freeze the current tractor-trailer limits to a weight maximum of 80,000 pounds and a length maximum of 53-feet. The Truck Safety Coalition has also launched the Web site StopBiggerTrucks.org.
However, the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, an industry group, thinks adding an axle to big rig trucks would make it safer for these large trucks to carry heavier loads because the weight would be more evenly distributed. An additional axle would give big rigs 22 wheels. They currently have 18 wheels. As it stands, not allowing trucks to carry bigger loads could result in more trucks having to get onto roads to meet the increasing cargo demand.
More 2007 Truck Accident Statistics:
• 4,808 truck accident fatalities
• 154 were Illinois truck accident deaths
• 83,908 truck accident injuries
• 802 truck drivers killed on the job
• There are approximately 3.5 million American truck drivers
• Double-trailers trucks are 32% more likely than single-trailer trucks to be involved in deadly traffic accidents; they are also 200% more likely to be involved in accidents on interstate highways
• At least 10% of trucks that are on US roads are illegally overweight
• Trucks that are too heavy are a major cause of damages to bridges and highways
Safety advocates fight push for bigger truck loads, CNN, May 4, 2009
Families of truck crash victims to turn “Sorrow to Strength” by launching
StopBiggerTrucks.org, TruckSafety,org, May 4, 4009
Related Web Resources:
StopBiggerTrucks.Org
Contact our Chicago truck accident law firm today.
