Heavier trucks can kill us

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Congress is set to give Pennsylvania a choice it should not have to make.
Under below-the-radar pressure from shippers who put profits ahead of human lives, Congress is being pressured to "allow" states to allow heavier trucks, weighing 97,000 pounds instead of the current 80,000, on highways despite the dangerous "structurally deficient" rating of more than 2,000 bridges in Pennsylvania.
Remember the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis? Thirteen dead. One hundred forty-five injured. Billions in damages.
This isn't just stupid. It's bordering on criminal negligence.
Oh, but it is a "choice."
Hogwash.
Back in 1974, a 73,000-pound limit was "optional." By 1981, it was "adopt the new limit or lose all federal funding."
The names of those who vote for this ought to be taken, and they ought to be hauled by federal marshals to the scene of the next bridge collapse, and made to scrape the mangled human remains into body bags.
- Denny Bonavita