Found the truck article on line.
"Governor urges better truck safety
Schweiker seeks increase in education, inspections
Thursday, January 24, 2002
By Matt Miller
Of Our Carlisle Bureau
Gov. Mark Schweiker sounded like a guy who had just been tailgated by a tractor-trailer rig.
He employed that tone yesterday in outlining a half-dozen highway safety initiatives during the Pennsylvania Truck Safety Symposium at the Clarion Hotel & Convention Center in Middlesex Twp.
The ideas, which participants in the two-day symposium will ponder, ranged from toughening Pennsylvania's tailgating laws to making more trucks subject to roadside safety checks.
"I've been on the road for almost 10 to 12 years and, bluntly speaking, I don't like a lot of what I see out there," Schweiker told the crowd of more than 200. "And it has to be confronted. "
That three state troopers and six Pennsylvania Department of Transportation workers have been killed in highway incidents during his time as lieutenant governor and governor emphasizes that need, he said.
He noted, too, that 859 people died in accidents involving trucks in the state between 1994 and 1998, while 100 people were killed in accidents in highway construction zones between 1996 and 2000.
Schweiker said there must be initiatives aimed at aggressive drivers and a push to improve education for drivers of automobiles and heavy trucks.
"There are a percentage of drivers out there who are way too careless," he said. "That's where the spotlight has to shine. "
There should be a review of how penalty points are assigned to drivers for violations in construction zones, plus efforts to heighten driver awareness of construction zone safety, he said.
To emphasize that point, he ticked off the names of five Beaver County workers who died when an 18,000-pound truck lost its brakes in a construction zone.
"It cannot stand, friends," Schweiker said. "It cannot stand. "
Truck drivers should have to take knowledge tests before receiving Class A or B licenses, he said, and there should be more frequent random safety inspections of heavy trucks.
Schweiker proposed that such inspections be extended to trucks that weigh as little as 10,000 pounds, down from the current 17,000-pound guideline.
Symposium participants will review the initiatives and make recommendations to PennDOT's Commercial Driver and Vehicle Task Force. The task force will then report to the legislative budget and finance committee by July.
Delegates at the symposium included representatives from state and federal transportation agencies, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways and the trucking industry.
In tandem with Schweiker's initiatives, Glen R. Thomas, chairman of the Public Utility Commission, released a statement committing the PUC to more truck inspections on roads where accident rates are high, promoting truck-driver education and auditing trucking firms with "unacceptable" performance records.
Schweiker, who preceded his speech with a walk around a tractor-trailer rig brought in for the occasion by Kinard Inc. of York, said he is not blaming truckers for all the state's highway hazards.
That onus falls on every driver, no matter the type of vehicle, who pays too little attention to the road or is in too much of a hurry, he said.
"There are culprits out there that just don't get it. They're dangerous," Schweiker said. "
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