Today's Thoughts 7/10/11 When Is Enough, Enough?

Today's Thoughts 7/10/11 When Is Enough, Enough?

A quote I found in an article at TheTrucker.com

Although overall out-of-service rates are at record lows, there is room for improvement until the roads are free from vehicle and driver violations, CVSAs Executive Director Stephen A. Keppler said. Events that focus on ensuring vehicles and drivers are complying with the law, like Roadcheck and all roadside inspections, draw critical attention to out-of-service rates and are shown to also impact crash reductions.



Also this quote from an article at mantecabulletin.com.


And it is being done in the name of safety despite the federal governments own records that show truck-related accident deaths are down almost 30 percent going from 4,204 in 2007 to a record low of 2,987 in 2009.



Now add in to the fact that MR. Ray LaHood according to the news articles that I've read this last week jumped on a plan, Flew to Mexico, and signed the deal for Mexican trucks to start hauling the freight that American truckers used to haul. And what is it that we are supposed to be understanding from all of this? Let's take a closer look into it as I see things.



Well, to start with, Safe And Legal Truck Drivers Of America know and understand that highway safety is our number one job. That is a given. But the comment from the first quote" there is room for improvement until the roads are free from vehicle and driver violations," leads me to believe that some one believes that this is actually achievable on a human scale.



To start with, the law is a very fluid thing. It can be read and understood in as many different ways as you have people that are trying to follow it and that are trying to enforce it. Even if you could get each and every truck driver on the road to do it the same way you would have to get each and every enforcement officer from every state to enforce it in the same way. I'm here to tell you that the people in California do not by any means do things as they do in Georgia, Wyoming, or any other state for that fact. Not to mention the fact that I, as a driver, have not yet developed my mental skills enough to know in advance just when a light bulb is going to go out or a brake shoe is going to crack before it happens. It is just not humanly possible to catch every infraction before you cross every scale. A brand new truck from the factory cannot claim to do that and it is financially a pipe dream to believe that every part on a truck can be replaced before every load and it's time to reasonably replace it.



Now let's move on to the second quote. "And it is being done in the name of safety despite the federal governments own records that show truck-related accident deaths are down almost 30 percent going from 4,204 in 2007 to a record low of 2,987 in 2009." Here is the cold hard realistic fact that needs to be understood. As long as there are trucks on the road delivering goods to keep America alive, there will be deaths involved. No two ways around that. Even trains that only cross the highway are involved in highway deaths. Planes have crashed on highways and ships have taken out bridges and all at one time or another has caused deaths on the American highways. The only way to ensure a zero death goal is to have zero trucks on the highway.



The point that both of these quotes seem to miss is that trucks are only at fault twenty percent of the time in these accidents. What we as truckers have come to know and understand is that we will be regulated right out of existence before they will ever talk to the other eighty percent of the people involved in these wrecks. I think they know this. When you look at what has been done to industry after industry here in America. When you recall a quote from a speech Obamma gave a few years ago in coal country. "You can do whatever you want in this country, but if we don't like it, we will bankrupt you" Then you can understand why Mr. LaHood went south and made the deal for drivers from other nations to come into America and pull the freight that we used to pull.



We have done our jobs to make this nation's highways safer. We have paid a heavy price as we watched thousands of us end up in bankruptcy to do it. We are enduring such inhumane EPA laws that leave us baking or freezing while we try to get a decent rest period in so we can be safe in our travels. And what it all boils down to in m y opinion is that they were not/ are not trying to make our industry safer. What they are trying to do is destroy the American trucking industry like they have done to many other industries in the nation. In our case they are just using safety as a means to achieve their goals. Even the medical qualifications will soon have only Gods driving trucks because no human will be able to meet them.



I believe whole heartedly that we must continue to fight for common sense safety in the trucking industry. I also believe that we must fight to save our nation from those that are trying to destroy it from within. For without our nation, there will be no trucking industry to worry about.



Welcome to America, Please leave things as you found them

Jeff Head.
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