#DOT Researchers Suggested a Way to Make Big #Trucks Safer.
After Meeting With Lobbyists, Agency Officials Rejected the Idea.
The Department of Transportation allowed #trucking lobbyists to review an unpublished report recommending a #safety device that could save lives by preventing #pedestrians & #cyclists from getting crushed under large trucks.
“PLEASE delete any mention of a recommendation to develop … any regulation,” the DOT supervisor wrote in an email.
@ProPublica You left out some rather important information in the article and your post and headline make it look like this happened recently instead of under the Trump administration.
April 18, 2023 | Washington, DC NHTSA is announcing 16 members of a new Advisory Committee on Underride Protection as well as an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to better protect passengers in crashes into the sides of larger vehicles #safety#truck#DOT
@ProPublica ..Am really sorry that a few have died under trucks...but why should trucks jeopardize themselves to having items that could cost them all their equipment,loads and life's when they get hung up on places like railroad tracks that need the clearance of the space under the trailers to get thru or be stuck with possible trains coming forth and will not be able to stop... not all deaths are the responsibility of truckers ..also have to take into account the person dead responsibility ...
@ProPublica The Biden administration has a blind spot wrt to commercial transportation. Joe Biden quashed the railway workers' union on sick leave and safety, Pete Buttigieg leaves in place extra-long trains and allows lobbyists to veto regulations they don't like. Piss poor performance, IMO.
@ProPublica So much for Pete Buttiieg's bona fides. He is helpless against lobbyists or — even worse — he believes banning the safety measure is a good idea.
"By the time of its release in 2020, the report had been dramatically rewritten, stripped of its key conclusions — including the need to federally mandate side guards...
@ProPublica
I'm sick and tired of those goddamn lobbyists shoving dangerous stuff down the throats of the American people just to get a bigger kickback from the predators they represent.
If there's any justice, those crooked corporate executives and their lobbyists would swing.
I've often thought that speeding tickets should be based on the % over limit, not the nominal difference. 10 over in a 25 is worse than 10 over in a 70.
Also, I think there should be a GVW scale as well. Having a 20 ton truck which takes 400ft to slow from 60mph (just guessing at those figures) inflicts more damage than a 2 ton small SUV that takes 200ft to stop.
Regardless, lots of other approaches would be welcomed as well!
@ProPublica This is sick. I have long wondered why such a simple safety device isn’t required on truck trailers. Seeing a car crushed on the open highway where everyone inside was obviously crushed to death left a lasting impression on me. It’s an obvious danger easily mitigated. This needs to change.
@ProPublica 2017. Meaning a corrupt Trump official was in charge of the rulemaking. Never let lobbyists for an industry influence regulatory decisions...
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