Conn. Truck Inspections Drop 20%

Connecticut’s truck inspections fell 20% to about 18,600 in 2007, compared with a year earlier, the Hartford Courant reported.

There were 988 nonfatal accidents involving large trucks last year, about 140 more than in 2006, while the number of tickets issued to truck drivers has declined, the Courant said.

Four people were killed and 19 injured a 2005 crash in Avon, Conn., in which a dump truck lost its brakes going down a hill on State Route 44 and hit a line of cars stopped at a traffic light, the paper said.

That crash prompted Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) to order more state truck inspectors onto the roads, after learning that truck inspections had declined sharply in recent years, the Courant said. Truck inspections jumped 30% in 2006, the year after the accident.

The state has 22 truck inspectors, and their salaries are paid for with state and federal funds. Officials at the state Department of Motor Vehicles say five inspector jobs are vacant because federal aid dried up, the paper said.