Four killed in Thruway crash (another in a rash of fatal truck accidents)

[brentspeak]

(It was last year when the Bush administration relaxed the truck driving rules at the behest of the trucking industry (and against the wishes of public safety groups and trucker unions): Increasing allowable driving time from 10 hours without a break to 11 hours; after 11 hours, drivers would have to take 10 hours off instead of eight. A couple of weeks ago, seven children in a car were killed by a truck in Florida; and in Illinois, five people in a car were killed by a runaway truck. Now this.)

Four killed in Thruway crash
February 7, 2006, 5:58 PM EST

HARRIMAN, N.Y. (AP) _ Four people were killed in a crash on the New York State Thruway in Orange County on Tuesday afternoon when a tractor trailer lost control and struck a Range Rover.

The dead included a Rochester couple and their 4-year-old son. The 62-year-old truck driver from Roosevelt also died.

The crash occurred around 12:45 p.m. just south of the Harriman exit, about 45 miles north of New York City.

Authorities said the tractor trailer lost control and rode atop the guardrail for about 100 yards before crossing into the northbound lanes and hitting the Range Rover head-on.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--brf-fourdead0207feb07,0,6920575.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork



(That's a total of at least 11 children and six adults killed by truck accidents within the past two weeks. I don't think these new rules are decreasing accidents.)

[roseBudd]

1. And the driver is driving at 62 because he can't afford to retire perhaps?

[bananas]

2. It was predicted this would happen

I remember reading the stories about it.

[Retired AF Dem]

3. In the past two weeks approx

1425 people have been killed in motor vehicle accidents in the USA. Maybe people are just getting to stupid to be allowed to drive motor vehicles.

[flvegan]

4. I'm looking for the part that says the driver was fatigued.

I'm not seeing it. I'm not saying it's not the case, but I'm not seeing even the suggestion in the story. Maybe I'm missing it. It says the driver lost control.

I knew an OTR trucker that was hauling a load of paper that wasn't loaded right. The load shifted and rather than swerving into traffic, he took the guardrail, and in his choosing, the guardrail gave, and he and his rig went crashing off an overpass (nobody was below). He pretty much burned to death. He didn't die on the scene, he died in the hospital after lingering for almost a day.

Yeah, the regulations suck, but I won't prosecute a dead man without knowing the rest of the facts.

[phylny]

5. I heard on WCBS today that the truck driver

had a medical condition. They didn't elaborate.