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Former Transport Topics publisher lambasts trucking industry
NEW YORK — The former publisher and editorial director of Transport Topics Publishing Group, a division of the American Trucking Associations, says Congress is coddling the trucking industry leading to accidents such as the one that critically injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed fellow comedian James McNair.
In an op-ed piece in Friday's New York Times, Howard Abramson, who left Transport Topics in 2014, wrote that more people will be killed in traffic accidents involving large trucks this year than have died in all of the domestic commercial airline crashes over the past 45 years, if past trends hold true.
"And still Congress continues to do the trucking industry's bidding by frustrating the very regulators the government has empowered to oversee motor carriers," said Abramson, who was a staunch defender of the industry during his almost 16 years with ATA. "In recent months, Congress has pursued a number of steps to roll back safety improvements ordered by federal regulators. It has pushed to allow truck drivers to work 82 hours a week, up from the current 70 hours over eight days, by eliminating the requirement that drivers take a two-day rest break each week; discouraged the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from investing in wireless technology designed to improve the monitoring of drivers and their vehicles; and signaled its willingness to allow longer and heavier trucks despite widespread public opposition. Congress also wants to lower the minimum age for drivers of large trucks that are allowed to travel from state to state to 18, from 21."
Abramson's reference to longer driving hours is linked to the efforts by the trucking industry to suspend the 34-hour restart provision that required drivers to include two consecutive 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods in any restart and restricted drivers to one restart every seven days.
As for longer and heavier trucks, the primary push now is to get Congress to allow 33-foot twin trailers on the nation's highway. The industry also supports heavier trucks, although no legislation has been introduced to do so.
The industry is also pushing Congress to allow men and women under the current minimum age of 21 to drive tractor-trailers on interstate routes.
The reference to technology was linked to a portion of one of the long-term surface transportation bills that would cut off funding for the FMCSA's wireless roadside inspection technology.
Abramson says all of those concessions have gained traction in Congress even though
the industry has consistently resisted safety improvements.
"The death toll in truck-involved crashes rose 17 percent from 2009 to 2013. Fatalities in truck-involved crashes have risen four years in a row, reaching 3,964 in 2013, the latest data available. Those crashes are killing not only car drivers but also, during 2013 alone, 586 people who were truck drivers or passengers," he wrote.
But the article failed to point out that 75 percent of accidents involving big rigs are the fault of the passenger vehicle driver.
"The trucking industry, through its chief trade group, the American Trucking Associations, insists that it needs longer work weeks and bigger vehicles so that more trucks will not be needed on the road, which it says could result in more accidents. That logic is laughable, but Congress seems to be buying it," Abramson wrote.
To read the complete article, click here.
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