Congress Moves To Increase Size Of Trucks On U.S. Roads
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- They seem to be everywhere on the highway -- large trucks -- even double-tractor-trailer trucks.
But now some want them bigger!
House Republicans, including Congressmen Tim Murphy, Bill Shuster, Mike Kelly, and Keith Rothfus, voted to allow 85-foot long double tractor trailer trucks known as Twin 33's.
"When these 85-foot long, double trailer tractor trucks are unleashed on the highway, you're going to see a change in the face of trucking," says Shane Reese, a spokesperson for the Coalition Against Big Trucks. "And [you'll] see 53-foot tractor trucks pulled off the road in favor of this 85-foot double trailer truck."
How big is 85 feet?
It's about the size of an eight-story building, and opponents say it will take an additional 22-feet for a Twin 33 to stop safely on the road.
Accidents with large trucks have been escalating.
In 2014, we had triple digit accidents in four of the five local counties through which major interstates run with 446 in Allegheny County, 189 in Westmoreland, 176 in Washington, 130 in Butler, and 51 in Beaver.
"By one estimate it went up over 60 percent in one year, so it's too much and we've got to fight against it," U.S. Sen. Bob Casey told KDKA political editor Jon Delano on Thursday.
Casey says he's trying to strip the increase in truck size from the Transportation Appropriations Bill in the Senate.
It's not just motorists who are concerned about big trucks on the highways.
The Pennsylvania Association of Chiefs of Police sent this letter to the senators warning that these 85-foot trucks would endanger public safety and wreak havoc on local infrastructure when they left the interstates to drive on local roads.
But Sean McNally of the American Trucking Association disagrees, saying with bigger trucks, "We can eliminate 6.6 million truck trips a year, which in turn would reduce truck miles traveled by 1.3 billion and cut carbon emissions by 4.4 billion pounds."
Casey says we don't need the equivalent of trains on our highways.
"Doesn't make any sense," he says.
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