The following letter was sent by AAA Carolinas CEO and President David E. Parsons March 7, 2008 to North Carolina newspaper editors

AAA Carolinas objects to sacrificing safety for profit when dealing with longer trucks in North Carolina

No one wants to sacrifice highway safety for profit. But that is what 53-foot tractor-trailers operating on many western North Carolina rural and urban federal-aid primary roads will do.

Bigger trucks (longer trailers) may help lower trucking expenses and the cost of the retail goods they transport. But these longer trailers are not able to negotiate the often two-lane narrow, steep and winding roads that largely gone unimproved since 1991.

The North Carolina Attorney General’s office ruled Feb. 25 that 53-foot tractor-trailers (box and flatbed) can travel on any roads that were part of what was at that time the 1991 Federal Aid Primary System, unless DOT’s investigations identify reasons – safety, road design, pavement or bridge condition – to ban them on a particular route.

Many roads in western North Carolina’s mountains are spectacularly narrow and winding. Longer trucks and RVs cannot negotiate many of these curve and intersection turns at any speed without crossing the center line. No one in any size vehicle wants to be in the opposite lane when this occurs.

The trucking industry likes to point out that, according to their preferred data, nationally, in tractor-trailer crashes with smaller vehicles, smaller vehicles are at fault 85 percent of the time.

Unfortunately, when that crash results in a death, 98 percent of those killed are in the smaller vehicle and not around to state their version of what happened.

Everyone – trucker and motorist – wants to avoid a collision and motorists have a responsibility to learn how to share the road with truckers, who suffer from blind spots around their rigs – and blind spots increase with the length of the truck.
 
At the same time, the trucking industry – and the retailers – need to recognize and acknowledge that some roads are unsafe for the longer trucks and decant transported goods to smaller, safer trucks.

Nationally, trucks are overrepresented in crashes. Only three percent of registered vehicles are trucks, yet they are involved in nine percent of all fatal crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway safety.
In 2005 and 2006, more than one in every five trucks inspected nationally, was placed out of service for deficiencies that prevented it from continuing to operate, according to federal agencies.

We need trucks to support our economy. But we also need DOT to keep our roads as safe as they can be.

There are enough published studies concerning highway design, truck turning radii, off tracking, and crash data to restrict the longer trucks to protect the traveling public from some roads in western North Carolina. Narrow, winding two-lane roads with marginal to non-existent shoulders should not be opened to longer trucks.

The State Highway Patrol has recognized this by issuing tickets in the past – making safety and common sense a priority.

The trucking and retail lobby is powerful in the legislature. So is the voice of every motorist and voter who has been intimidated by these behemoths on a winding two-lane highway. DOT and legislators need to ensure that motorist safety overrules profit.

 – David E. Parsons
CEO and President
AAA Carolinas