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Subject: Defective Trucks Cited;1 in 4 Ordered Off Md., Va. Highways<By Kevin
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 04:28:31 EST
Message-ID: <4.1992Oct30.042831@AmeriCast.com>

Defective Trucks Cited;1 in 4 Ordered Off Md., Va. Highways<By
Kevin Sullivan=Washington Post Staff Writer=

More than one in four trucks inspected on Maryland and Virginia
highways are ordered off the road because of defects in brakes,
lights or other safety features, according to state police in
both states.

The national truck inspection rate is even worse: Nearly one in
three commercial trucks inspected on the nation's highways have
defects of some kind, federal officials said.

"Thirty-three percent is not acceptable; we have to continue to
get better at reducing those numbers," said Richard P. Landis,
associate administrator for motor carriers for the Federal High-
way Administration, which compiled the national inspection fig-
ures.  Although federal highway officials say trucks tend to be
safer now than they were 10 years ago, high-profile accidents
like last week's gasoline tanker crash on Interstate 270 continue
to fuel drivers' fears about trucks and to prompt calls for truck
safety improvements.

Investigators still don't know what caused last week's crash,
which killed two people. However, federal officials say more than
5,000 people a year die in accidents involving heavy trucks, many
of them with faulty brakes.

Drivers in the Washington region who see an 18-wheeler in their
rear-view mirror might consider the following:<Of the 1.5 million
trucks inspected across the nation last year, 32 percent were
placed out of service, if only temporarily, because of safety de-
fects, said Federal Highway Administration spokeswoman Michael
Trentacoste.  The inspection failure rate in Maryland was 28 per-
cent last year, and Virginia's was 30 percent, state police
said.<

In all cases, brakes out of adjustment were the most common rea-
son for trucks to fail inspection, followed by problems with
lights, officials said. Badly adjusted brakes cause or contribute
to accidents by increasing stopping distance and making trucks
unstable when they brake, causing deadly jackknifing.<

The inspection failure rates mean that 150 trucks an hour drive
the Maryland part of the Capital Beltway with badly adjusted
brakes, according to the AAA's local club.  AAA officials esti-
mate that 12,000 trucks a day use Maryland's part of the Beltway.
If 30 percent have brake problems, that's 3,600 trucks a day, or
150 an hour, said Robert Krebs of AAA.<

Some safety officials, including the National Transportation
Safety Board, think the 30 percent inspection failure rate is too
optimistic. A spot check by the safety board last year found
brake problems in nearly 60 percent of the trucks inspected. And
many truckers are able to circumvent the inspection sites by re-
ceiving early warning from the citizen's band radio network.<

The good news about the inspection statistics is that they used
to be worse. Nationally, the failure rate has decreased steadily
from 34 percent in 1990, 36 percent in 1989 and 38 percent in
1988.  Both Virginia and Maryland state police report a similar
decline in their failure rates for the last few years.

Trucking industry officials acknowledge that even more improve-
ment is needed in truck maintenance, but they also note that many
items causing trucks to be placed out of service are not life-
threatening, such as broken taillights. Law enforcement officials
agree that in most cases, trucks ordered out of service during
inspections are back on the road within minutes after drivers re-
place a bulb, readjust brakes or make some other roadside repair.

"I shouldn't be saying this in my position, but 10 years ago, the
question wasn't whether the brake was out of adjustment, the
question was, 'Is it there at all?' " said Larry Strawhorn of the
American Trucking Associations, a trade group representing truck-
ers. "Now we're dealing with a more borderline situation instead
of a gross situation." However, Krebs of the AAA believes the in-
spection failure rate is still too high. He and other advocates
say it confirms their contention that truck safety is not as high
a priority as it should be.

"That's one in three trucks that you pass on the highway that are
operating unsafely," Krebs said.  "If my son were to receive
three wrong for every test of 10, he'd still be getting a D in
school."

Safety advocates believe that truck inspections are especially
vital in a "dog-eat-dog" economy where profits are down and
truckers are forced to run longer hours.

"The current economic environment of the trucking industry is
very much a dog-eat-dog situation," said Chuck Hurley of the In-
surance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit research group
funded by the "Ten years ago, the question wasn't whether the
brake was out of adjustment, the question was, 'Is it there at
all?' Now we're dealing with a more borderline situation instead
of a gross situation."<

- Larry Strawhorn>American Trucking Associations>

insurance industry. "Safety is not as high a priority as it
should be. . . . Does it mean that a third of the trucks are
killer trucks? No, it doesn't."

The recession puts more pressure on the industry to increase
trucker productivity, specialists say. For years, the industry
has lobbied for longer, wider trucks and for relaxation of the
maximum number of hours that truckers can legally drive in a
week.

The federal government is considering a proposal, requested by
long-distance truckers, that would allow drivers to spend more
hours on the road. Federal regulations now allow a driver to work
70 hours in an eight-day cycle. That would increase to as many as
100 hours in an eight-day cycle under new regulations proposed by
the federal Department of Transportation.

Hurley is opposed to any increase in truckers' hours. He said his
group conducted a study in February of 1,249 truckers in Connec-
ticut, Florida, Oklahoma and Oregon and found that 73 percent
said they already worked more hours than allowed and falsified
their logbooks to hide it.

More than 25 percent said they worked more than 100 hours a week,
Hurley said. And 19 percent of the drivers, mainly those who
worked the longer hours, reported falling asleep at the wheel at
least once in the month before the study.

Gerald Donaldson, co-chairman of Citizens for Reliable and Safe
Highways, an advocacy group, also opposed the increased hours,
calling truckers' current working condition "sweat shop levels."

Based on its truck safety report this year, the National Tran-
sportation Safety Board issued a variety of recommendations, in-
cluding requiring automatic brake adjusters and antilock brakes
on all new trucks.

Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
adopted one of those recommendations when it announced that it
would require all new trucks, buses and trailers with air or hy-
draulic brakes to have automatic brake adjusters.

"Improper brake adjustment contributes to a significant number of
crashes," said a statement issued by Marion C. Blakey, adminis-
trator of the safety administration, which is a division of the
Department of Transportation.

Blakey's group estimated that the automatic brake adjusters would
prevent at least 20 fatalities, 310 injuries and 1,418 crashes a
year.

The safety administration also is drafting regulations that would
require antilock brakes on all new truck tractors by 1995 or
1996, said associate administrator Barry Felrice.< 02:05 10-
30C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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