WASHINGTON — Organizations representing highway and truck safety groups, labor and independent truck drivers joined members of Congress last week in accusing the Bush administration of ignoring federal safety laws concerning a pilot program allowing trucks from Mexico to travel throughout the United States.

The groups — including Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Public Citizen and the Truck Safety Coalition — released an analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) program they say shows the agency fails to comply with federal law. They also released a recent opinion poll revealing the public’s opposition to the plan.

In February, the administration announced plans to conduct a pilot program allowing up to 1,000 Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel beyond the current 20-mile limit border zone. The Bush administration had still not finished implementing safety requirements in that law, but decided this year to proceed with the pilot program in an attempt to open the border.

Hearings in the U.S. House and Senate, featuring testimony from Advocates and Public Citizen, identified safety problems with the program. On May 24, Congress approved provisions in a supplemental Iraq War funding bill to ensure that any pilot program to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks full access to the nation’s highways would not circumvent safety standards or congressional oversight.

Special interest groups and owner ops say FMCSA is
crossing the line if it goes ahead with Mexican truck pilot

The provisions ordered the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which is responsible for implementing the administration’s cross-border pilot program, to obey a number of requirements that the groups say the agency is still ignoring.

Last Wednesday, the groups accused the administration of pressing forward without meeting many of the safety provisions directed by Congress. Less than three weeks after the legislation was signed into law, FMCSA published a notice in the Federal Register on June 8 that in effect declared that the agency had met all of the congressionally mandated safety requirements to open the southern border.

The report from critics, however, identified every provision of law that FMCSA has failed to comply with, according to the opposing organizations.

“The Bush administration and the DOT have failed in all respects to meet congressional requirements to put safety first before forcing open the border to potentially dangerous long-haul trucks,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen and chair of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) — sometimes viewed as an anti-truck group by the industry.

Todd Spencer, a former truck driver and executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), added: “The administration is simply thumbing its nose at the safety and security concerns that have been raised by Congress and the American people.”

A new poll released by the groups and conducted by Lake Research Partners found that a majority of Americans (56 percent) believe the Bush administration’s plan to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel outside the current commercial zone and throughout the United States is dangerous.

Notably, self-identified independents (60 percent) are most likely to agree that the Bush proposal is dangerous, though majorities of Democrats (54 percent) and Republicans (58 percent) concur.

— via Truckinginfo.com