RE: A sobering thought

[shaun d mullen <mullens@phillynews.com>]

Similar police stops of trucks this year in Philadelphia on I-95 and I-76 
also have yielded an alarmingly large number of trucks that had violations 
so serious they were taken out of service on the spot.  (We're talking 
major stuff like inadequate brakes, bald tires, improperly balanced and 
secured loads, and so on.)  There is no reason to suspect that a 25 percent 
unsafe ratio like that encountered in WVa would not hold true anywhere 
else, especially since deregulation of the U.S. trucking industry seems to 
have led to even less attention being paid to safety issues and even more 
pressure on truckers, notably the little-guy independents, to make their 
nut.

Most truck drivers, of course, are conscientious, just like most Audi 
drivers are.  What is alarming to me has been the recent proliferation of 
truckers that I have observed who do not drive safely, whether hogging the 
passing lanes, tailgating or driving well over a safe speed.  When a yo-yo 
driving an Audi (and I have witnessed two instances in the past year of 
Audi drivers misbehaving very badly) loses it, chances are fairly good no 
one else will suffer.  When a yo-yo driving an 18-wheeler loses it, the 
mayhem can be horrible.

Shaun Mullen
Wilmington, DE



-----Original Message-----
From:	Robert Myers [SMTP:rmyers@inetone.net]
Sent:	Thursday, November 11, 1999 7:52 PM
To:	Quattro list
Subject:	A sobering thought

Hi Y'all,

About 25 miles from my home is a stretch of I-64 which has a long (~5
miles) steep (8%) grade.  Over the years since the highway's construction
this grade, despite the presence of three escape ramps for out of control
vehicles, has been the site of numerous accidents involving 18 wheelers.

Last week WV's finest (or so they say) during a five day stretch stopped
249 18 wheelers on this section of I-64.  49 of them were deemed to be so
unsafe that they were taken out of action on the spot.  148 citations were
issued for safety violations.  This is out of only 249 trucks stopped.

Does this information disturb others as much as it does me?  Twenty percent
were considered to me unsafe for operation.  If that statistic holds
nationwide we have problems.


___
   Bob
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