Truck Safety Under Scrutiny in N.C.

Trucking safety is under close scrutiny in North Carolina, where two groups’ work on how to improve the state’s highways and roads could lead to big changes for truckers.

One group has already completed its work and made recommendations, another has just begun its inquiry.

In May, Norris Tolson, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, created a working group to study truck safety and recommend ways to improve it. That group presented its findings to Mr. Tolson December 17.

Among its recommendations were building more rest areas for truckers, more truck safety information in drivers education classes, restricting trucks to the right line on highways and creating a state-run inspection system.

E.L. "Eb" Peters, President of the North Carolina Trucking Association said he hadn’t taken a close look at all 66 of the groups recommendations, but that some of them seemed impractical and would do little to make the roads safer.

Especially troubling was the idea of the state getting involved in truck inspections, which are currently performed annually by the trucker.

"With everyone I’ve spoken to in the truck manufacturing and sales business, vehicle defects are a very small part of crash causation," he said. "The state of our equipment today is the best it’s ever been."

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is currently deciding which recommendations it will ask the state legislature to consider in 1999.

With the Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives and gaining seats in the Senate, Mr. Peters said he was pretty sure trucking was in for a battle on some of these issues when the legislature convenes on January 27.

Mr. Peters will also be hard at work next year as a trucking representative on a second task force established by Secretary Tolson.

For the full story, see the Jan. 4 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.