"Mass-ive Mobilization" [overweight coal trucks]

[Ruth Sponsler <jk5554@YAHOO.COM>]

The piece below gives a good idea of what our "safe"

folks in the fossil fuel industry really think about

safety.



Hmmm...I guess coal truck drivers don't think they

need to ~apologize~ or even *respect* safety laws,

even when they're 76,000+ pounds over highway limits. 

Not just a few hundred pounds over - - - 76,000 or

more pounds over! 



I smell a double standard here.  Nuclear folks should

continue to be conscientious, as they have been in the

western world since 1979.  (Chernobyl was more a fault

of the failed Soviet system than of the 'nuclear

industry' per se).  Some others, like these whining

coal truck drivers, have their own houses to clean.



One simple equation: F = ma.  There are weight limits

on trucks to reduce the number of fatalities in

collisions that involve trucks.  The heavier the

truck, the more likely it is to cause a fatality

accident if it hits someone.  



Norm, what do you think?  I can make a slogan about

this mobile excess-mass problem.  How about a

"Mass-ive Mobile-ization" in favor of energy safety? 

[This time involving these miscreants from West

Virginia].  



It's no wonder people drive the largest vehicles they

can.  Folks are scared to drive smaller 'energy

conserving' vehicles, when there are individuals out

there "sharing" [?] the highways who believe that the

'perceptions' of society regarding fossil fuels give

them "carte blanche" to openly flout safety laws.  



Until we start to apply the same strict safety

standards to the fossil generators as we do to

nuclear, unfortunately, I believe that 'nothing will

change.'  This is because the 'perception' that fossil

is 'safer' than nuclear has been _allowed to stand_

through sheer lack of enforcement on the fossil side.



~Ruth 2





=======================================================

Coal Drivers Protest Weight Limits

Source: Associated Press 

Publication date: 2002-03-12



CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Coal truck drivers upset with

the governor's decision to enforce state highway

weight limits converged on the Capitol on Tuesday. 



About 100 truckers gathered along Interstate 64 and

U.S. 119 before driving into the city en masse to

block traffic around the Capitol complex. 



"People need to respect our way of living or everybody

in the state will have to feed us," said trucker B.J.

Manns. "If they enforce the law at 80,000 pounds, it

will put drivers out of work, it will put trucking

companies out of work, miners out of work." 



On Monday, Gov. Bob Wise issued a directive to send

state enforcement agencies to U.S. 52 in Wayne County.

It was the first time since the 1980s that the state

had conducted a coordinated enforcement action. 



Crews stopped 14 trucks Monday, with the lightest

weighing 156,000 pounds and the heaviest at 181,000.

State laws limit truck weights on highways to between

65,000 and 80,000 pounds. 



"The state issued 2,000 citations for overweight

trucks last year," said Amy Shuler Goodwin, Wise's

spokeswoman. "We are just continuing to enforce the   

law." 



                                                    

The Associated Press News Service

                                                  

Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press







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