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Trucking Industry Applauds Introduction of DRIVE Safe Act
Bipartisan bill aims to bolster trucking workforce, enhance safety training and technology standards
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ARLINGTON, Va., March 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Today, American Trucking Associations applauded the introduction of the DRIVE Safe Act in both the U.S. House and Senate by a group of bipartisan legislators. The legislation addresses the economy s growing shortage of professional truck drivers by expanding job opportunities for younger members of the trucking workforce, while also strengthening safety training and technology safeguards for select candidates looking to participate in interstate commerce early in their careers.
Families who have lost loved ones in semitruck crashes push for safety guard
Marco Rubio & other lawmakers again push Stop Underrides Act
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Could deadly crashes involving semitrucks be prevented? A group of families who’ve lost loved ones hope a simple guard on the side of trucks could help lower the number of deaths in collisions between cars and tractor trailers.
An underride crash is when a car goes under a semitruck trailer. It can happen from the front, side or back of the trailer, and the results are often deadly.
Monday morning, family members joined together in a video call as part of a task force for the Stop Underrides Act, which would make protective guards under tractor trailers mandatory nationwide.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation, telling them to reject failed speed limiter proposals that have been resurrected by the American Trucking Associations in coordination with Road Safe America.
OOIDA has long opposed efforts to mandate speed limiting devices, saying they make roads less safe. OOIDA says speed limiters increase congestion and speed differentials between trucks and cars, which ultimately lead to more crashes. Additionally, arbitrary speed limits make it difficult for truck drivers to switch lanes to accommodate merging traffic at entrance ramps – or to merge themselves.
“Studies and research have already proven what we were all taught long ago in driver’s ed classes – traffic is safest when vehicles travel at the same relative speed,” said OOIDA President Todd Spencer. “What the motoring public should know is that when they are stuck behind trucks on long stretches of highway, those