Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: politics


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There’s still hope

Last week I let you know about an amendment attached to an important bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee that would make our roads more dangerous.  Senator Shelby from Alabama offered the amendment replacing 28 foot double truck trailers with 33 foot double trailers.  The 33s would be legal across the country, even in states that have shorter limits on the length of truck trailers.

If you followed the fight on the Hill or comments attached to that post you’ll know that the Shelby amendment passed by one vote.  So 33 foot trailers are now in the bill that will be considered by the full Senate when everyone gets back to Washington after the 4th of July break.

This was a big disappointment for our group who are working hard to make our roads safer.  We believe that 33 double trailers are not as safe as 28 foot double trailers which are less safe than single trailers.   I’ll be honest.  We took a couple days to feel discouraged; but this week we’re back to work.

Now that our Senators are home in their districts for a few days we are visiting their local offices, talking to their staff about what happened in the Senate Appropriations Committee.  We’re talking about the dangers of 33 foot double trailers and  passing out statistics, studies, and personal stories.   We’re asking the Members to please vote for any amendment presented that would remove the 33 foot double trailers from the bill, and if that doesn’t happen to vote NO on the entire bill.

Really.  Vote NO on the bill in it’s entirety.

Voting no on an important bill that is necessary to move our country forward is counter intuitive for us and the Senators alike.  But aside from the trucking issues within this bill there are other controversies as well.  It’s possible the bill will not move forward.  It’s possible it will move forward but not in the present form.  It’s possible we will win this battle because of other problems, other fights, that we aren’t even aware of.

We don’t know.

Yesterday husband and I drove an hour to meet with the regional managers of our two Senators .   I’m always nervous when preparing for a meeting with our Congressional members.  I don’t know why.   I guess because we grew up looking up to these people and they still seem intimidating.  And I suppose I’m also nervous because I’m asking such important things of them; things with such huge consequences.  Of course I shouldn’t feel nervous, I’ve never been treated with anything but interested respect.

That’s a lesson in itself.

On our way down to the big city I saw a State Trooper SUV from the commercial truck inspection team that had pulled over a truck.  That always makes me smile, because I’m glad inspectors are out on the road.   I know that one in five trucks pulled over for inspection are taken out of service because the vehicle is too dangerous to be on the road.   I took the sighting as a sign that everything would be OK at our meetings.   And as we got close to the city I saw a big orange truck, my sign for dad saying hi, and I knew for sure things would go well.

And they did.

I had dad’s picture in my folder, looking up at me, reminding me why we were there.  And because we weren’t in crazy busy DC we got a lot of face time with the regional managers.  Both asked good questions, engaged with us, told stories of their own and seemed genuinely empathetic.  They will pass our opposition to the 33 foot double trailers in the Appropriations Bill on to their Senators.

We did the best we could to convince them that safety has to come before profits, that longer trucks are less safe.  That everyone is in danger, including the drivers of the trucks.   We listened, too, to their concerns about the bill, about truck safety, about commerce.   The only way to a solution is to understand the other side.

Whatever happens now I can say we did the very best we could.

To those of you in the States, have a wonderful 4th of July  holiday weekend with family and friends.  Stay safe if you’re on the water, if you’re watching fireworks and when you’re on our roads.

We want you all back safe and sound come Monday morning.

 

 


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Assault on safety

Most of you know that my dad was killed by a tired trucker in 2004, and that since then I’ve been working with the Truck Safety Coalition trying to make changes in the interest of safety.

Today there was a semi and tourist bus crash in Pennsylvania.  At least 3 people on the bus are dead and more are injured, some critically.  I usually like to reserve judgement until we know the cause, but photos seem to indicate the semi crossed the median and the tour bus struck the trailer of the semi in the center, breaking it in two.  There are photos showing the dark gash through the median, the front of the bus buried inside what’s left of the semi trailer.

Multiple dead, multiple injured.  People who were here from Italy just enjoying the sights on a beautiful day.  And on this same beautiful day I received an urgent message from Truck Safety to call my House Representative because the trucking industry is leading a full assault on safety in the latest appropriations bill.

Among other things they want to take away funding for a study that will determine whether the current minimum liability insurance commercial carriers are required to carry should be increased.  The minimum amount of insurance is $750,000.  That hasn’t been raised or reviewed in over 35 years.

Think about medical expenses which have skyrocketed in the past 35 years.  Then consider there hasn’t even been a cost of living increase.

Think, too, about multiple people injured in a crash who need intensive medical attention.  Did you know all claims from a crash are paid from the total available liability insurance?  So if the company has the minimum $750,000 of insurance, and there are, for example, four injuries or any other claims for that matter, they all split the total.  The minimum won’t be nearly enough, and expenses over and above have to be covered by the families.  And when the families run out of money taxpayers pick up the rest in the form of medicaid.

The trucking industry would rather all of us shoulder the cost of crashes caused by their race for profits.

So on this beautiful day people were killed and injured through no fault of their own.  And at the same time Congress is getting ready to pass a bill that will gut our ability to even get the minimum insurance requirements studied.  The trucking industry appears to be in charge of our Representatives.

But there’s an amendment that will negate the part of the bill which would defund the minimum insurance study.  It’s called the Cartwright Amendment, and it will be voted on very soon, perhaps tonight, perhaps tomorrow.  Possibly Friday.

Here’s how you can help.

Call or email your House Representative.  You can find out who it is by going to this site and putting in your zip code.     Tell your Member of Congress to vote for the Cartwright Amendment which will remove the provision to defund rulemaking on minimum insurance in the THUD Appropriations Bill.  Tell them that minimum insurance that hasn’t been increased or even reviewed in 35 years is not acceptable.  Tell them that anti-safe trucking measures don’t belong in an appropriations bill.

Tell them you care about safety on our roads.  That you believe they should stand up for safety rather than profits.

You can make a difference.

Thank you.

Special Dad

Special Dad


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We are here, we are here, we are HERE!

Revision note 12/10, 5:30 a.m.:  Sadly Congress passed the Appropriations Bill last night while I slept.  Complete with Senator Collins’ language to roll back truck safety.  Read below and you’ll understand some of what the American people lost.  It’s devastating.

How many of you remember the story by Dr. Seuss titled Horton Hears a Who?  It’s the story of a whole world of people living on a spec of dust who must make a glorious and loud noise to prove their existence.  That’s how I feel right now as those of us associated by tragedy to the Truck Safety Coalition fight to remove an amendment to the Appropriations Bill that will increase the allowable hours a professional driver can drive each week from 70 to 82 hours.  The Appropriations Bill has to come up for a vote in the next couple of days and if the language is still included when that happens much of the work we’ve done over the past several years to require professional drivers to get adequate rest will be lost.

We are desperately trying to make enough noise to be heard.

I’ll try to keep this brief as I know during the holidays no one wants to spend a lot of time reading and thinking about things as serious as death and injury.  As wrenching as grief.  And most of your know my family’s story; dad was killed by a tired trucker on December 23, 2004.  In two weeks it will be ten years.  For nine of those years we’ve been fighting the battle, trying to get a safer Hours of Service Rule issued by the Department of Transportation.  Finally, last year the new rule was mandated. It wasn’t everything we wanted. We wanted the maximum daily number of hours that a driver could drive to be reduced from 11 back to 10, and we lost that fight. But at least the new rule required drivers who had maxed out their weekly allowable hours of work to rest for two consecutive nights.  The two nights of rest piece wasn’t just pulled out of a hat.  There’s all sorts of scientific evidence that the human body needs certain kinds of rest in order to be fully functional, and two nights in a row helps to maintain the body’s rhythm.

As soon as the rule came out the American Trucking Associations attacked.  And they helped Senator Collins from Maine to write the Collins amendment which would repeal this mandated two nights of rest.   It’s basically the only step forward we’ve made in years of fighting, and this amendment would put us back to square one.  It allows shippers and supervisors to once again push a driver to work up to 82 hours every week.  That’s twice as many hours as you and I, or most Americans, work.  And truck drivers don’t get paid overtime.

A recent poll showed that the majority of the American public is  opposed to increasing truck driver hours.  They know about the dangers of fatigued driving.  The opposition to the legislative efforts to increase the allowable hours is across all demographic and political groups.  If the majority of people oppose increased driving hours, then why is Congress so set on letting the two nights of rest be repealed?

Because the ATA financially supports their political campaigns.

And that’s why we absolutely need to make a louder noise.  Right now.  We need every Senator contacted tomorrow and again the next day if the vote on the Appropriations Bill hasn’t occurred.   We need every Senator to know that we oppose the Collins Amendment being included in the bill.  The Collins Amendment has nothing to do with appropriations and it has never been debated on the Senate floor.  It was worked out in a closed door committee meeting and slipped into the bill as if it was a done deal.

Well it’s not done.  Not yet anyway.

Please call your two Senators.  Tell them you are against the Collins Amendment being in the bill.  Tell them you want our roads to be safer and you expect them to stand up for safety rather than  cave to expensive truck lobbyists who’s agenda is profit over safety.  You can find your Senator’s phone #’s here.     And if you’d like to read more, go to the Truck Safety Coalition website, or directly to a letter from two Senators who oppose the amendment.  If you’d like to know more about Senator Collin’s motivation, read Joan Claybrook’s statement.  

Please help.

This didn’t turn out to be the short, poetic heart-tugging blog I intended.  But it’s so important and there’s no short way to explain what’s happening in Washington DC right this very moment.  I can’t explain the politics of it any more than I can fully explain the grief of losing a family member suddenly, tragically, needlessly.

Please don’t think of this as my issue, my problem.  The safety of our roads is everyone’s issue, everyone’s problem.  It’s only by all of us banding together and making that glorious, loud noise that we will be noticed.  Please help me make that noise.  Make that noise as early as you can tomorrow.  The Senate offices open at 9 a.m.  Let’s make those phone lines sing.  You can call later in the day too.  Just please call.

The roads don’t belong to the ATA.  They belong to all of us.  And we deserve to garner as much attention as a paid lobbyist.  We deserve to get more attention.  We’re the ones that voted these Senators into their offices and they should be paying attention to us. We are here.  We are here.  We are HERE!    Say it with me now.   WE ARE HERE!   And Senator Collins – we are not going away.

Thank you for your support. I miss you Dad. Braun and Badger 107


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Update on truck safety legislation

We received an update email from the Truck Safety Coalition.  Part of it is below.  I wanted you to know what is going on since you’ve supported me through this roller coaster that is safety legislation.

 

“As you know, on Thursday June 19, the Senate began consideration of the FY 2015 Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill as part of a package of three appropriations bills.  Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), filed an amendment to the THUD bill which would protect the Hours of Service (HOS) rules governing rest periods and the amount of hours truck drivers may work each week. Joining Senator Booker in cosponsoring the amendment were Senators John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sherrod C. Brown (D-OH), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Brian E. Schatz (D-HI), and Chris S. Murphy (D-CT).

 

Senator Booker’s Amendment was introduced as a response to the language inserted into the bill at committee markup (Collins Amendment) which would increase the truck driver weekly work week to over 80 hours while a study was performed on the HOS restart provisions.  The Booker Amendment would strip the Collins Amendment of its language to suspend the restart provisions, and prevent an increase in truck driver work hours, while preserving the study.

 

We have now learned that the THUD bill has been pulled from the Senate floor indefinitely due to unrelated issues on other legislation, and we need your support to ensure that when the THUD bill returns, if a vote is held, the Booker Amendment will have enough support to pass.  It will likely be a very close vote.  In addition, Senator Blunt (R-MO) has indicated that he may offer an amendment, identical to the Collins amendment, to the Senate Commerce Committee’s piece of the surface transportation authorization bill.  Right now, we are unsure when the Commerce bill will come up for vote.  But, as you can see, this dangerous anti-safety language will not be going away, and it is imperative that we keep the issue of truck driver fatigue in the media and public eye.”

 

This delay adds another wrinkle in the fight for safety.  It’s difficult to keep our issue in front of the Senators for an extended time and the trucking interests have deep pockets and will be in the Senators’ ears constantly.   I’ll keep you updated when I hear more.  Meanwhile, if your Senator is listed above having cosponsored the Booker bill, please take a moment to call him or her and let them know you appreciate them trying to save lives on our roads.

And thank you very much for your support.

 


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Safety update. And turtles

Who you lookin at?

Who you lookin at?

Today was a busy day as volunteers, including some of you, made phone calls to Senators in Washington, asking them to consider safety before profits  —  to strike down the Collins Amendment that would gut the Hours of Service Rule just instituted last summer, and to watch out for amendments that would prohibit any attempt at raising trucking company’s  minimum liability insurance requirements.  And as the day went on some Senators stood up and voiced concern over trucking regulations.  In particular there is now another amendment, the Booker-Menendez Amendment  (both are Democratic Senators out of New Jersey) that would strike down  the dangerous part of the Collins amendment; the part that would cause the hours truckers are allowed to work to increase back to 82 a week.  The Booker-Menedez  Amendment would allow a study of the ‘unintended effects of two consecutive nights off’ for drivers who work 70 hours or more a week but would not make changes in the rule until after that study was complete.  Seems like a good compromise to me.    I called my Senators again late this afternoon and asked them to cosponsor that amendment.  We’ll see.

I’ll keep you posted.  I truly appreciate all your support, in all its different manifestations, from calls to writing, to hugs, to concern.  It’s all important.  And the more you talk about it with friends the better chance we have of making our politicians understand the importance of not letting profits compromise safety.

Scoping the lay of the land.

Scoping the lay of the land.

Meanwhile.  I came home to find a Blanding Turtle (no I didn’t know the name, but a friend on Facebook did!) in my driveway.  You know those things can move pretty fast when they want to.  By the time I got inside and hooked the dog up for a walk to the mailbox it was nowhere to be seen.    But I knew where it was, under some shrubs along the edge of the driveway.  Because Katie wanted to go over there really bad.  But I wouldn’t let her and we high tailed it back inside.  Almost instantly I noticed it had moved up to the garage and was looking around.  I think she’s trying to decide where to lay eggs.  I watched and took pictures through a tiny bit of beveled glass in the front door.

She walked all the way up the driveway, along the garage door, then back past the front porch and under the car.  Who knows where she went after that, but there’s a lot of garden for her to choose from.  Katie and I went out on the deck to watch and listen to the birds.  I fell asleep until the frogs began to sing.  It would be a good night to camp out but sheer exhaustion precludes me from lugging the tent out and setting it up.  Plus tomorrow is another day.

I hope Capital Hill sees fit to make the right decisions tomorrow.  I hope they aren’t like my wandering turtle, just exploring and looking and ending up headed right back where they came from.  Or hiding under a metaphoric car.

Wandering off to look for better places.

Wandering off to look for better places.

I’ll let you know.  For tonight I’m pulling my head into my shell and getting some shuteye.

Katie says night too.

But Mama, I don't want to go to bed yet!

But Mama, I don’t want to go to bed yet!

 


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How far would you go?

I was distractedly listening to CNN while cooking up some holiday goodies Monday night when I heard the President dealing with the immigration hecklers in San Fransisco.   Apparently he was there to talk about immigration and many standing behind him  as he spoke were members of an immigration advocacy group.  One or two began to shout, asking him to exercise his executive powers to help their cause.  Many began to chant.  He took it in stride.

I understand their passion for their cause.  But he is the President.   On the other hand when will those folks ever again get this close to someone they believe can fix their problem?  So they chose to make a statement.   Were they brave?  Or were they stupid?

I have an issue I feel the same passion for.  I have often wished that I could just sit down with someone as powerful as the President and explain things, ask for help.  But I’m sure I could never, ever, heckle him at a public function.  Protest outside the venue perhaps, but never to his face, never interrupt his speech.  In fact I don’t think I could interrupt any public official’s speech.

So I’ve been thinking about this.  Thinking about the public officials I’ve met, the ones  I’ve asked politely to help us in our cause.  Thinking about how little progress I’ve made.  Wondering just what exactly it would take for me to be brave enough to demand that help publicly, even rudely.  Maybe polite doesn’t work.  But who knows if rude works either.

What about you?  Do you have something that matters enough to you that you’d heckle the President of the United States?  Do you think it was brave of them?  Or stupid?

I’m undecided.


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Sneak attack by the trucking industry. Again.

The fight for safety on our highways never ends.  Always and forever we have to keep vigilant.  And we at the Truck Safety Coalition do that because our lives have been changed – always and forever.

Most of you know that I volunteer for the Truck Safety Coalition, working with  other victims to make change in laws surrounding commercial trucks and the impact they have on all our lives.  One of the things we work on is fighting the trucking industry’s constant attempts to get bigger and heavier trucks on our roads.

Their latest attempt is an amendment that has been introduced to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, Senate Bill # 1197) which is under consideration by the Senate right now.  FedEx, UPS and others  are trying to get an extension to the current size of double-trailers which are currently 28 feet long.  The industry wants to lengthen each to 33 feet; on a double trailer that means the truck will be 10 feet longer.

What’s an additional 10 feet you say?  Well, there are several problems.  Here’s information from the Truck Safety Coalition intended to provide you reasons why longer trucks are not a good idea:

  • Truck crash deaths increased last year — AGAIN. Just released 2012 fatality figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show an increase in large truck fatalities for the third year in a row, including a 9 percent increase in deaths of large truck occupants. Last year, 3,921 people were killed on our roads in large truck crashes.
  • 98% of fatalities in two-vehicle crashes between a large truck and a passenger vehicle are the occupants of the passenger vehicle.
  • Truck crashes impose enormous economic costs on society. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the annual cost to society from crashes involving commercial motor vehicles is estimated to be over $83 billion.
  • Don’t believe it — Bigger trucks never result in fewer trucks despite industry claims. Over three decades of research and experience show that allowing bigger, heavier trucks will not result in fewer trucks. Increases in truck size and weight limits over more than 35 years have never, ever resulted in fewer large trucks on our roads.
  • Public opinion polls are clear and consistent — the public strongly opposes bigger trucks. The American public overwhelmingly opposes relentless special interest efforts to increase truck sizes. This new NHTSA data only validates the public’s fears about the dangers to motorists from oversized trucks.
  • 39 states will be forced to allow 33 foot trailers and fund expensive infrastructure improvements. Legislation permitting 33 foot trailers will preempt the existing truck length limits in 39 states. States will be forced to invest in expensive infrastructure improvements to accommodate these oversized rigs on interstates and upgrade freeway on-ramps and off-ramps.
  • Congress directed the U.S. DOT to study bigger trucks and their impacts on safety and infrastructure. MAP-21, passed with strong bi-partisan support, directed the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to conduct a comprehensive two-year truck size and weight study to provide data on crash frequency and the impact of large trucks on safety and infrastructure. No truck size increases should be considered while the Congressionally mandated study is underway.
  • Industry funded research making safety claims is neither objective nor unbiased. There have been no independent, peer-reviewed research and studies conducted on the operational and safety issues associated with the use of 33 foot trailers, only industry financed research. The motoring public should not be used as human guinea pigs to conduct this research.
  • Serious safety problems on state and local roads with longer trucks. As combination trucks grow longer and invade more lower-class roads, the danger of severe crashes rapidly increases because these roads often have narrow lanes, winding alignments, limited sight distances, and inadequate or no shoulders, and often have trees and telephone poles at the edge line.
  • Congress needs to improve truck safety rather than increase truck length. More than one in every five trucks that is inspected is placed out-of-service for vehicle deficiencies that prevent it from continuing to operate.

For More Information, contact the Truck Safety Coalition, 703-294-6404

So….we need your help again.  If you could contact your state’s Senators and give them a heads up that there is an amendment introduced in the NDAA that you oppose we’d appreciate it.  All you need to do is go to this website to find out who your senators are.  Call their office and ask to speak to the Transportation Legislative Aide or, if that person is not available, ask to speak to the Defense Legislative Aide.  Tell them you oppose the amendment that would allow longer trucks.  Pick any of the points above that you feel comfortable with.

It will take you a minute or two total.  Leave a voice mail if you have to.  Help us make a difference.  Help us maintain the current size and weights, keep larger trucks from our roads.

You never know whose life you’re saving.  But you can guarantee you’re saving someone.

Thanks.


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Need some help here

There’s been a lot going on in Washington that has potential to make traveling on some of our roads even more scary.  I know, it’s hard to believe things are actually happening in DC, but it’s true.

As most of you know I volunteer for the Truck Safety Coalition.  One of the things the group does is monitor Congress, looking for attempts from some organizations and lobbyists to get around the safety regulations, to gain exceptions in order to get heavier or larger trucks on the roads.  The American Trucking Association (ATA) is always looking for ways to make more profits and they don’t much care who ends up paying.  And in the end, bigger, heavier trucks cost all of us; some of us pay with our lives or the lives of our loved ones, but everyone pays with taxes used to repair the roads and bridges that heavier and larger trucks damage.

So lately there’s been a push for exemptions for heavier trucks in some states.  The House has already passed a bill that allows heavier trucks on some Wisconsin highways.  Now there is a similar bill in the Senate.  It’s S 1299 and it’s up for discussion right now.  They’re going to try to get it to pass by consent.  I guess this means that if no one objects the bill will pass.  It will allow heavier trucks on federal highways in Wisconsin.  If the Senate passes it’s bill and the House already has a bill it’s only a matter of time, and not much time, before heavier trucks will be rolling on federal highways in Wisconsin.

You might wonder why I care about what happens in Wisconsin.  After all I don’t live there.  You probably don’t either.  So why care what they do?  I care because this is the way the ATA works.  They get an exemption here, an exemption there.  Pretty soon the rules are no longer consistent on federal highways between states.  Then they pressure states who haven’t increased weights to go along with the plan in order to be competitive and keep business in their state.   You can guarantee that once weights are increased in WIsconsin the ATA will be moving on to a state near you.  Maybe even your state.

80% of Americans are opposed to heavier trucks.  In my experience politicians will tell you they are against heavier trucks in their jurisdictions too.  But when it comes right down to it, the trucking industry has money.  A lot of money.  And money talks.  No one is talking about the other side of this issue — the cost to regular people like you and me.

So you can help.  Call your Senators.  Ask them to object to the Baldwin/ Johnson Senate Bill 1299.  Remind them that even though this is in Wisconsin it’s a FEDERAL highway, so it’s relevant to all of us.   We only need one Senator to object and they won’t have their consensus.   Maybe it will be your Senator that makes the difference, your Senator that is brave enough to stand up for what is right, maybe it will be your Senator that will put safety before profits.

Please call  202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator.  (You each have two Senators…please call them both if you can!)   You can leave a message with a real person.  It only takes a minute.  Your vote counts.  You count.  If we all call our Senators tomorrow (Friday 8/2) one of them is BOUND to object to this bill.

We can do this, but I need your help.  Lots of people thank you for all your support.

I do too.


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Trucks…here’s something you can do.

I’m watching the news today as it covers the people of Sandy Hook in DC lobbying for increased gun control.  I listen to the husband of one of the adults killed as he talks about the flight to DC on air-force one; how the entire flight he wished he was home with his wife watching her dance while she made dinner.   I see a clip of family members in a Senator’s office clutching tissue and trying to present their stories.  My own eyes tear up because I know.

From deep inside my soul I know how they feel.  How incredulous they are to be in the places they are now.  And  I know how they experience these amazing events – they experience it all through the mist of grief.  I remember sitting at a boardroom table, next to the Secretary of Transportation, across the table from Ralph Nader.  I remember the out of body experience as I talked to Dad in my head, unable to believe where I was, what I was doing.

Imagine flying on the President’s plane, talking to people you’ve seen only in the news.  Imagine keeping their attention on your story as you talk.  Incredible.  But we would all give up the attention and all these experiences just to have our family member back.  In a heartbeat.  No one wants the kind of celebrity these families are experiencing now.  No one wants to joint that club.

But I digress.  Here’s something you can do.  Go to this website and vote.  It’s a poll asking people how they feel about increasing the size and/or weight of trucks.  Currently in most states the maximum weight is 80,000 pounds.  There is a push to increase that to 97,000 or 100,000 pounds.

One of the arguments most often used for increasing truck weight is that there will be fewer trucks on the road if they can be bigger.  Historically, there has never been a reduction in the number of trucks on the road when weights have been increased.  There are consistently over time more and more trucks sharing our roads.  If the weights go up there will be more and more heavier trucks sharing our roads.

Another argument is that the increased weight will come with an additional axle which will spread the higher weight out so  there will be less damage to our infrastructure.  Truthfully, a heavier truck is a heavier truck.  Our bridges were not built for 100,000 pound trucks.  No matter how many axles you put on the truck it will still weigh 100,000 pounds.  More damage to our roads and bridges is inevitable.

The families of Sandy Hook say they feel like their children and family members are with them as they work the Hill.  It’s true.  The people killed that December day are there on the Hill.  And that’s exactly why Sandy Hook families work on gun issues and our families work on truck issues – issues we didn’t know anything about not so long ago.  Issues we wish we didn’t know so much about now.

So please go and vote…and of course you can vote whichever way you feel.  At the beginning most of the votes seemed to be coming from the trucking industry.  Now there’s more of a mix in the comments.  You don’t even have to comment.  We were told we might have to set up a profile to vote, but I didn’t have to do that, so you will be anonymous.  We just want to know what every day people think about bigger heavier trucks on our roads.  We don’t want the poll to be skewed either way…we would just like to know how you feel.

Thanks as always for all your support.  As things progress you know I’ll keep you posted.


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Sorrow to Strength – our first chapter

When Dad was killed by a tired trucker in 2004 we didn’t know what to do first.  We knew we needed help but we didn’t know where to turn.  In desperation a family member started searching the internet and found the Truck Safety Coalition.  Their website back then was pretty simple, but it had a phone number and I called the next day.  They provided information and support – and an invitation to a conference called Sorrow to Strength.   I attended with my sister the next fall only 10 months after Dad was killed.    I smile when I remember how young and naive we were then, not in calendar years, but in the ways of politics and Washington DC.  I remember being incredibly hurt and thoroughly confused at that first conference.  We were still reeling from losing Dad, and we couldn’t absorb all the information provided, but we could absorb the love and support.  And we made lifelong friends.

During the first two days we listened to families tell their stories of loss and pain and outrage.  So many of their stories sounded like ours.  Some of the families had been fighting the fight for many years.  We weren’t even sure what the fight was.  But we knew we needed to help fix the problem of tired truckers – for Dad and for all these other people’s family members too.

Sunday night we had a remembrance service with photos of our loved ones.  Those that could speak told stories about the ones lost; sometimes we laughed along, sometimes we cried together.  The important thing was that we could share our folks with others, that they were not forgotten.  It was important that people recognized our loved ones’ lives had been about much more than just the crash that took them.

Shortly after the remembrance ceremony we retired to our rooms to study the material we’d been given during the meetings.  We were emotionally exhausted, but Monday morning we were going to visit our Senators and House of Representatives.  Neither my sister nor I had ever visited a government office before so we were nervous and I don’t think either of us slept well.

But here’s the thing.  I did not know then how easy it is to talk to someone in my Senator’s office about things I know are important.  Who knew that you could just make an appointment and the staff would be gracious and listen?  Who knew you could walk into any Senate or House office building and talk to your representative?  Who knew you and I are just as important as the people we see walking government corridors on TV?  That our voices and our stories are as or more important?  That we can leave an impression, can change things, can fix things.

We met with people in small offices and big conference rooms for two days.  We were exhausted but empowered.  Maybe things didn’t change instantly after those first meetings.  But I can guarantee the people that talked to us, looked at Dad’s picture, even cried with us, were changed.  We left a little bit of our pain with other people in every meeting.  And we gained a bit of strength with each time we told the story.

We left Washington DC after that first conference with hope.  And we left a little bit stronger than when we arrived.  Sure we were still hurting.  But now we had a direction in which to move, a place to put the hurt.  A way to make sure Dad was not forgotten.

That’s the power in Sorrow to Strength.  We know we won’t ever be free of the sadness.  But making our voices heard, saving other lives?  Well.  That’s what makes us stronger.

It’s for you Dad.  And for all the others.  You’ve made us stronger than we ever thought we could be.  It’s all for you.