Policy Activists: Truck Loads Already Too Large

Monday, May 4, 2009

As a transportation bill moves through Congress, activists petition to fight big
rigs carrying larger loads, calling it a public health crisis.

At a news conference on Monday, the Truck Safety Coalition led by advocate Joan Claybrook introduced families whose loved ones had been lost to highway fatalities due to commercial truck accidents. One victim's father expressed that larger trucks would be a greater hazard than currently exists.

Truck cargo industry group Coalition for Transportation Productivity instead calls for tractor-trailers to add an axle, thus giving them 22 wheels instead of 18. They are pushing for higher load limits as cargo demand increases and safer roads based on fewer trucks being on the road and more even distribution of weight.