WASHINGTON — She was like a nail stuck in the trucking industry’s tire tread.

Joan Claybrook, longtime safety and consumer advocate, announced last week she is stepping down as president of special interest group, Public Citizen, on Jan. 31, 2009.

In her 27-year tenure, Claybrook said in a statement, among other things, the expansion of dangerous triple-trailer trucks was stopped, limiting their operation to about a dozen, mostly western, states.

Some in trucking have labeled her organization as anti-truck, as the industry has been a frequent target of Public Citizen’s lobbying campaigns. It also in the past aligned itself with the formerly railway-funded group CRASH and Parents Against Tired Truckers.

In recent years, her group has continuously battled the new hours of service rules and the Bush Administration’s pilot cross-border trucking program with Mexico in the courts, and has pushed for mandatory on board electronic recorders in trucks.

Claybrook will remain on the board and is helping in the search for her replacement.

"I have led Public Citizen through many tumultuous times in our nation since 1982 and am leaving it now a strong and vibrant organization with a budget many times larger than I found it," she said.

When Claybrook took over as president, Public Citizen had a budget of $1.5 million and a staff of fewer than 50 people. The group’s budget has grown to around $13.5 million and it employs around 90 people.