Saturday, August 30, 2008

Law says tie litter down


Sgt. Michael Leutert of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office takes photos of an SUV he pulled over that was carrying an unsecured load. Below, Sgt. Leutert speaks with two people inside a white Chevrolet pickup truck about securing their load after pulling them over on Dover Road. (Photos by Jamie Dexter/The Leaf-Chronicle)

Law says tie litter down

By JAMIE DEXTER • The Leaf-Chronicle • August 24, 2008

A white pickup with a load of tree limbs and debris flies down Dover Road.

With nothing securing the debris, they flutter in the wind, dangerously close to flying from the back of the truck.

Sgt. Michael Leutert, of the Environmental Enforcement Unit of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, flips on his lights and follows the truck, pulling it over.

"If tree limbs fall into the middle of the roadway, people might swerve and hit another car, another kid or something and wreck," Leutert said earlier about another vehicle. "That's why we have (the 'tarp law'). ... It needs to be tied down."

The state law Leutert refers to requires anyone carrying material in the back of a pickup or on a trailer — be it limbs, debris, trash or anything else — to secure it "as to reasonably ensure it will not fall or be blown off the vehicle."

This could mean covering it with a tarp if the debris is small, or tying larger pieces down with cables.

With some debris, safety isn't the only concern — some trash can be harmful to the environment or require road crews to clean up the mess.

"I've seen construction debris where someone tore out walls, and it's covered in pink insulation, and that stuff flies off going down the road. How many years do you think it takes for that stuff to decompose into the Earth?" Leutert says. "Basically, it'll have to be picked up."

Leutert added that even with two litter buses, it's amazing how much debris and garbage is on the road, even after the road has been cleaned by workhouse inmates.

"A percentage of this waste comes from people not securing their loads," Leutert says.

Leutert said in the five years he's been enforcing these laws, word has gotten around, and he's seeing more and more people securing their loads, but he says he still has to work to educate people about the laws.

Some don't know about the laws, he says, and some just don't care.

"Some people just don't have a clue," he says. "So I have to be the person that gives them a clue ... ignorance of the law is not an excuse."

If someone who has a load that should be covered and secured is pulled over, that "clue" could end up amounting to around $500 in fines, court costs and community service.

"It could end up being at least $700 for not doing a simple thing to help keep the roadways clean," Leutert says.

For those hauling other loose material in smaller amounts, the material has to be four inches below the the walls of an open bed, according to state law.

Being pulled over in violation of that law can amount to around $201 in fines and court costs.

And if anyone knowingly throws litter, including cigarette butts, onto the road, they can be fined.

Leutert says when he patrols, he checks to make sure people carrying a load have done whatever they can to keep anything from falling into the road.

"You can easily tell after doing this a while who does and who doesn't," Leutert says. "The penalties for not following state law are pretty severe. Tennessee does not take kindly to litter."

While some, including those in the white truck, might drive away with a ticket in hand, fuming about the fines they will be paying, Leutert says it's all for a good reason.

Says Leutert: "The sheriff (Norman Lewis) and Pete Reed, director of the Bi-County, and myself all have a common goal — to keep Montgomery County cleaner and, in return, safer by continuing efforts in the Environmental Enforcement side of the law enforcement house."

Jamie Dexter covers crime and entertainment and he can be reached at 245-0216 or jamiedexter@theleafchronicle.com.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Wayward Trailers Hit Random Targets



Note: Please take note of this section:

Decades ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made proposals for federal standards on hitches and requiring safety instructions for motorists who would tow trailers. These proposed federal regulations were resisted by manufacturers and rental companies, and US transportation authorities finally dropped them in 1972.

The next time you meet or follow a truck towing a trailer on the highway, you should be very wary and steer clear. The trailer could easily separate from the truck, and you could be in trouble.

Unbeknownst to many motorists, runaway trailers have caused a number of devastating crashes across the country, resulting in deaths and serious injuries.

There are no statistics on a nationwide scale on accidents caused by runaway trailers. There have been reports that recorded 540 trailer crashes from 2000, causing deaths to at least 164 people and injuries to hundreds more. These are sketchy numbers and probably are huge understatements of the actual frequency.

Majority of the victims in wayward trailer crashes are helpless motorists. The trailers, once they break loose, become like unguided projectiles running into an oncoming vehicle. In some cases, oncoming vehicles trying to avoid the speeding trailer crash into other vehicles instead. Trailers have also hit pedestrians, including children waiting at a bus stop, or rammed into bedrooms.

Many crashes are the result of neglect: the failure to follow proper precautions and safety procedures in attaching the trailer to the truck. A 2006 survey on 300 trailer owners found that a majority did not even know how to attach a trailer’s safety chains properly. Most lacked knowledge of basic safety methods and proper towing practice.

There are federal and state regulations on commercial trailers. But there is virtually no federal regulation, and only haphazard state rules, on smaller trailers.

Decades ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made proposals for federal standards on hitches and requiring safety instructions for motorists who would tow trailers. These proposed federal regulations were resisted by manufacturers and rental companies, and US transportation authorities finally dropped them in 1972.

State regulations are almost nonexistent, and where they exist there is no active enforcement. A number of states do not require safety chains — which are the most fundamental protection — for light-duty trailers. But accident reports show that safety chains, when used, were too rusted or worn to do much good.

For bigger trailers with brakes, many states require a backup system that automatically applies the brakes when a trailer comes loose. But accident reports also show that in many accidents such systems were not operating because the battery that supplied the system power was dead.

There are a few laws, but there is no one enforcing them.

Safety experts say motorists should be required to qualify for a special license in order to tow small to medium-size trailers. Currently, in all 50 states, you only need to have a basic driver’s license to tow.

Safety tip:
* Make sure the trailer is securely hitched to the tow vehicle. A trailer’s coupler will not hitch securely if it is wider than the hitch ball on the tow vehicle.
* Always attach the safety chain. It keeps the trailer attached in case the hookup fails.
* When buying a trailer, ask your dealer for proper techniques and instruction on hitching trailers. Many techniques are common sense, but some are not and need special instruction.


Motorists beware of trailers' risks


Q: There are many people with trailers on the road these days. Not just small trailers, but horse trailers and other large units as well. People need to be on the lookout for trailers, and should know how not to drive around them: Aggressive driving and cutting off vehicles pulling trailers is particularly dangerous. Trailer-haulers can't stop on a dime, and it takes considerable space for them to make turns or change lanes. Other motorists need to give them enough room.

Jacqueline Greener

Easton

A: Good points, Jacqueline.


The Warrior has a true confession tale to relate wherein he nearly caused a horrific accident simply by failing to put the brakes on his temper.

On Interstate 78 eastbound, east of Harrisburg, near dusk, the Warrior was ''boxed in'' for what seemed like forever (probably five minutes) by a guy in the passing lane to his left, maintaining the Warrior's too-slow speed without reason.

By the time the full-size sedan finally inched ahead, the Warrior was so frustrated he resolved to zoom dramatically into the passing lane, right behind the car, the instant its rear bumper cleared. His thinking went along the lines of, ''I'll show this guy what I think of his driving!''

Perhaps by instinct, the Warrior must have glanced left at the last instant, and there was enough light remaining to illuminate the outline of one of those low, steel-frame trailers -- this one bearing a snowmobile.

Jerking the wheel back to the right, the Warrior stayed in the travel lane for a few more seconds until the trailer cleared. He'd nearly slammed his car directly into its side, snowmobile and all. The insane maneuver, fueled by an absurd sense of vengeance, likely escaped the trailer-tower's notice.

This story illustrates the roadway mentality to which many of us succumb at one time or another, emotion overtaking clarity of thought. Something about modern-day vehicles and driving conditions can bring out the worst in us. A conscious, sustained effort is needed to overcome this tendency -- an effort the Warrior tries to make, not always with success.

The experience also illustrates how dangerous it can be driving trailers, and driving among them.

Accident statistics comparing civilian trailer-towing to single-vehicle driving are rare, and controversial. U-Haul, for example, contends that towing a trailer actually is safer than traveling unattached, but a Los Angeles Times report last year revealed considerable skepticism of the claim from traffic-safety experts.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration advises motorists new to the trailer-towing game to practice in parking lots or in low-traffic areas before hitting the road for real.

Terry Ritter of Schaeffer's RV Super Store in Shoemakersville, Berks County, said store personnel take buyers for short test drives to make sure they gain some sense of towing practices. And safe-driving procedures and road conditions are discussed at monthly owners' clinics, he said.

NHTSA offers a truckload of safety tips for folks towing trailers.

For general handling, the agency recommends moderate speeds (translation: slow down!) to minimize trailer sway and instability, not to mention wear and tear on the vehicle doing the pulling. Trailer towing can be tough on engines and transmissions.

Experts also caution against sudden starts, stops and steering maneuvers, and note that motorists pulling trailers need to make wider turns to avoid bumping or crossing curbs with the trailer's tires.

(That's also the answer, incidentally, to a query from Vince Julian Jr. of Nazareth as to why some motorists, even those without trailers, make a slight jog to the left before turning right at intersections. It's intended to gain a better angle for the turn, to avoid hitting the curb with the right rear wheel. But wheel-strikes are rare for average-size cars, and the ''hook'' move to the left is not recommended for general practice.)

Allowing ''considerably more'' stopping distance with trailers, and slowing in anticipation of stops, by downshifting for example, are advisable braking practices. Passing on level terrain, allowing extra passing distance, and ensuring the trailer clears before returning to the travel lane are among NHTSA's other recommendations.

Tips and information about backing up and parking, and other trailer safety advice are available from the agency's Web site, and from numerous trade groups.

''Regular'' motorists with trailers in their midst should observe the familiar rules regarding civilian trailers' big brothers, tractor-trailers, Ritter said: Don't follow too closely behind -- if you can't see a trailer's outside rear-view mirrors, the driver can't see you.

With some common sense, and with mutual awareness among trailer-towers and the rest of us, we can hope to travel together without incident.

Just watch out for those snowmobile trailers.

Road Warrior appears Mondays and Fridays. E-mail questions about roadways, traffic and transportation to hartzell@mcall.com. Please include your name and the municipality where you live. Or, write to Road Warrior, The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St., Allentown, PA 18101-1480.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Gov. Easley rejects plan to ease boat towing rules


Gov. Easley rejects plan to ease boat towing rules

By Whitney Woodward
Associated Press

Gov. Mike Easley made good on a lingering veto threat Sunday when he rejected a bill which would have eased boat towing restrictions for North Carolina motorists.

"I sincerely believe that this bill puts families at a risk on the highways and would result in death or serious injury," Easley said in a statement announcing the action.

The rejected legislation would have allowed drivers to pull boats up to 10 feet wide on any day of the week without first obtaining a special permit. Motorists also would have been allowed to tow watercraft up to 9 1/2 feet wide at night.

Current state law allows boats up to 8 1/2 feet wide to be towed only during daylight hours on weekdays.

In pushing for the legislation this summer, lawmakers had said the current law jeopardized North Carolina's ability to host competitive fishing tournaments and severely limited North Carolina boaters' ability to take weekend trips.

The governor had until midnight on Sunday to veto or sign into law legislation that lawmakers had approved before adjourning July 18. If Easley did not take action on the bills - including the boat towing measure - they would have become law.

The veto should come as no surprise to lawmakers.

In July, top Easley aide Franklin Freeman told House and Senate lawmakers that the governor thought the measure was unsafe.

Easley echoed that Sunday, saying North Carolina has 60,000 miles of two-lane roads which are too narrow to accommodate 9 1/2 foot-wide boats safely. That means those watercraft would run over the center line and into oncoming traffic, he said.

"Further, if two 9-1/2 foot boats were to meet on an 18-foot strip of road or bridge it would be physically impossible to escape a collision," Easley said in his statement.

The bill now returns to the General Assembly, where legislative leaders will decide whether to accept Easley's veto or try to override it. Easley urged lawmakers to wait until next year to revise the law so there is ample time to study the consequences of the legislation.

To revive the measure, three-fifths of the House and Senate members present in each chamber would need to vote for the measure.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously. The House approved it 108-5.

A spokesman for House Speaker Joe Hackney said Sunday evening that legislative leaders have yet to decide whether they will try to override the veto.

Bill sponsor Rep. Arthur Williams, D-Beaufort, said he's confident there are enough supporters to override the veto, should the General Assembly come back to Raleigh.

Williams challenged Easley's claims that the measure is unsafe, saying that the wider boats would be resting on the same sized trailers and that an extra five or six inches on each side would not jeopardize motorists' safety.

"They've been running those boats up and down the highways of North Carolina since 1982," Williams said. "They haven't had a lot of accidents."

The General Assembly has never overridden a veto in the 11 years since it granted North Carolina governors the power to reject legislation.

Easley, now nearing the end of his second four-year term, is the only governor to use the authority.

Legislature should more closely examine boat hauling issues


Legislature should more closely examine boat hauling issues


Earlier this week, Senate leader Marc Basnight said he wants to bring lawmakers back to Raleigh to override Gov. Mike Easley’s veto of a bill that would allow trailers to haul wider boats on state roads.

The measure originated in the House, so Basnight indicated he was waiting for House Speaker Joe Hackney to make the first move, according to a story in The News & Observer. Hackney is checking to see whether House members want to come back to Raleigh for an override vote, a spokesman for the speaker told the News & Observer.

Advertisement

The message the speaker ought to get back from lawmakers is a considered “No.”

The governor is right to place highway safety over all other considerations, but he’s also right in urging lawmakers take up the bill again in January, “when there is time to thoughtfully avoid the consequences” of the present bill.

The bill Easley vetoed would allow drivers to pull boats up to 10 feet wide on any day of the week without first obtaining a special permit. It would also allow motorists to tow watercraft up to 9 1/2 feet wide at night. Current law restricts the width of boats being towed to 8 1/2 feet and allows towing only during daylight hours on weekends.

Boaters’ concerns

The bill resulted from concerns raised by boaters after the N.C. Highway Patrol stopped several anglers in late summer 2007 and gave them tickets that resulted in large fines or fees for illegally trailering their boats, according to reports in “North Carolina Sportsman.”

Concerned boaters began calling the Highway Patrol and the Division of Motor Vehicles wanting to know exactly what the state’s trailering laws were and how to comply. A variety of official answers led to more confusion, according to North Carolina Sportsman. But, among other things, boaters learned that the laws had been in effect for years, but in the past the Highway Patrol considered them more applicable to commercial haulers, not individuals towing personal boats.

A forum at UNC Wilmington drew a large crowd in May and several East Coast lawmakers promised to introduce legislation to get the laws “straightened out,” according to the magazine.

The bill Easley vetoed is the only one of several that made it all the way through the legislative process, the magazine reported. Lawmakers supported it overwhelmingly in both the House, where the vote was 108-5, and the Senate, which voted 43-0 for it.

Width problems

Easley’s objections are that North Carolina has 60,000 miles of narrow two-lane roads and maintains roughly 1,000 bridges 18 feet wide or less, which would require 9 1/2 foot boats to cross the centerline in violation of state law.

He also objected to allowing boats as wide as 9 1/2 feet to be towed anytime, day or night, without a permit “as required by all other states from Texas to Virginia.” Another failure of the bill in Easley’s view is that it doesn’t restrict the blood alcohol level of those doing the towing to less than .08, which is double the amount allowed by commercial vehicles of smaller size.

Rep. Arthur Williams, a Beaufort Democrat, challenged Easley’s claims that the measure is unsafe.

“They’ve been running those boats up and down the highways of North Carolina since 1982,” Williams said. “They haven’t had a lot of accidents.”

Coastal interests

The issue is an important one for coastal communities, which depend on out-of-town boaters who come for fishing tournaments and other recreational opportunities for tourism revenue. It’s also important from the standpoint that North Carolina has a growing boat-building industry, exemplified by Palmer Marine’s new plant in Bladen County, that it has worked diligently to recruit. Being seen as a state that makes it hard for recreational boaters to tow their boats would do little to help those efforts.

The industry has been hit hard by the economic slowdown. Maverick Boat Co. is closing its manufacturing plant in Marion as of Aug. 28 and consolidating production in Fort Pierce, Ga., after Cobia boat sales were down 29 percent in June, usually the busiest month.

“Our country is in a recession, and our industry is in a massive downturn,” Maverick Boat CEO Scott Deal said. “We expect market conditions to improve and plan to resume production in Marion the very minute conditions allow.”

The state needs to do all it can to encourage boat builders like Maverick to return or bring jobs to North Carolina.

In Florida, according to North Carolina Sportsman, boats can be towed a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset if the towed vehicle isn’t more than 10 feet wide. Other states also have laws that are less restrictive than North Carolina’s current law.

Even so, the governor’s safety concerns shouldn’t be dismissed. Those of us who live in the western part of the state know how dangerous narrow, curvy roads can be for wide vehicles. A compromise might be to lower the permitted blood alcohol content to below .04 and to allow the Highway Patrol to ban trailering wide boats on roads with narrow bridges or where it would otherwise be dangerous.

That’s something lawmakers can debate in the next session, beginning in January. The governor’s veto should stand.



Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Few rules, little oversight in crane industry


As you read this article... the point I will make is you can take out the word crane and insert "Utility Trailer" and insead of 2 people getting killed you can insert over 400. What does our government do? NOTHING



Few rules, little oversight in crane industry

Some states have no regulations and opt for outdated federal guidelines

Little oversight in risky crane industry
Some states have no regulations and opt for outdated federal guidelines
The Associated Press
updated 12:51 a.m. ET, Tues., June. 10, 2008

NEW YORK - Dan Mooney has no idea what it will take for his construction cranes to pass inspection.

The crane company owner recently asked New York City officials for a list of safety hazards that inspectors look for. He was told that information wasn't public.

"How am I supposed to know what I need if you won't tell me?" Mooney asked. "It's like not posting the speed limit."

In 35 other states, crane companies face a different problem: Operators don't need licenses of any kind.

An Associated Press analysis found that cities and states have wildly varying rules governing construction cranes, and some have no regulations at all, choosing instead to rely on federal guidelines dating back nearly 40 years that some experts say haven't kept up with technological advances.

Crane safety under scrutiny
Crane safety is getting extra scrutiny following an alarming number of crane-related deaths in recent months in places such as New York, Miami and Las Vegas. In New York City, two crane accidents since March have killed nine people — a greater number than the total deaths from cranes over the past decade.

Many states have no count of their cranes, nor do they mandate training for workers who run the equipment, or for officials who certify crane operators. Even the federal government acknowledged last month that updated standards would prevent some crane accidents.

New York City has only four inspectors on the payroll to inspect more than 200 cranes, 26 of them large tower cranes. About four inspections are conducted each day, a routine that one 40-year industry veteran said won't detect real problems such as the rebuilt crane part blamed for a crane collapse last month.

"That's impossible," said Ron Brodek, an inspector from Chandler, Ariz. "You're just looking through the paperwork then. It's a drive-by inspection."

The crane standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were last updated in 1971. They require cranes to be inspected once a year. But most of the inspections never happen. OSHA, which is part of the Labor Department, inspected only about 23,000 of the country's some 4 million construction sites last year.

Labor Department spokeswoman Sharon Worthy said she didn't know how many of those sites had cranes, but the federal government last year issued $500,000 in annual penalties for crane violations.

Updating the regulations, Worthy said, "is a top regulatory priority" for the agency. But approving the rules could still take more than a year after the Labor Department finishes an internal review of the proposed new regulations.

Highly specialized skill
Running a crane is among the most highly specialized skills in construction. Operators of tower cranes, like the two that collapsed into Manhattan residential neighborhoods, cannot see the loads they're picking up and must use a radio to communicate with workers on the ground.

One wrong move can bring tragic consequences. In March, two construction workers in Florida were killed when a crane plummeted 30 stories onto a condo project, damaging the home used in the movie "There's Something about Mary." More than 50 people have died in crane accidents in Florida over the past decade.

"There's certification for your plumbers, your pipe fitters," said John Lindsey, a crane operator and treasurer of his union local in Jefferson City, Mo. "Why in the heck won't they hear about certification for your operators?"

Bruce Whitten, chairman of the Florida Crane Owners Council, bemoaned the state's lack of licensing requirements for crane operators.

"Anyone can operate a crane," he said. "I can take you over there and you can go operate a crane."

But Whitten was among industry leaders who sued to block Miami-Dade County crane ordinances enacted last spring that would have required that operators be licensed and that cranes withstand wind speeds of 140 mph. The lawsuit said none of the 200 cranes operating in the county could meet the standard.

Florida lawmakers introduced a bill that reduced the wind speed limit to 120 mph and required a national operator's test, but Miami-Dade legislators blocked it, saying it would weaken local standards.

After the March 15 crane collapse in Manhattan that killed seven people, Dallas checked its 23 cranes and found that eight had uncertified operators at the controls.

In states that only go by OSHA standards, annual crane inspections are largely a matter of self-policing by crane owners. Federal law requires that inspection records be kept, but not submitted. Some owners cut corners and avoid the inspections.

"There are people who don't do it because they know their machinery will not pass code," said John Alexander, an inspector for Cranetex Services in Austin, Texas. "There are people who will give the excuse that they can't afford it."

Standards not keeping up
Even if regular inspections were conducted, the federal standards have not evolved to address equipment that is twice the size of cranes used in the 1970s and uses computers, Alexander said.

California, with some of the toughest crane regulations in the nation, has required independent inspections of equipment for decades.

After an 1989 tower crane accident killed five people in San Francisco, the state began requiring twice-a-year inspections and mandating that operators submit drawings of the crane's placement before receiving a permit. Since then, no one has died in a tower crane accident, said Roy Berg, a regional manager with the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Third-party inspections are also required in Nevada, and crane contractors are responsible for maintenance and daily inspections. Before May 31, when a worker was crushed by a moving crane at a Las Vegas Strip megaresort under construction, the state hadn't had a crane accident in 14 years.

Independent inspections are being considered in New York City, but they were not among more than a dozen construction safety rules proposed last week. The city did propose training for crews who assemble cranes. Some of them were killed March 15 while trying to extend a crane in Manhattan. Investigators have focused on a broken nylon strap that held the steel and the way the workers were installing it.

The city's Department of Buildings couldn't say what is covered in a normal inspection, saying release of that information would interfere with criminal investigations under way into the latest crane collapse.

The confusing regulations sometimes contribute to other problems: On Friday, an assistant chief crane inspector was charged with falsifying inspection reports and tampering with exams, although the charges weren't related to the latest collapse.

That reduced the city's number of crane inspectors on the payroll from five to four, although the city says it's getting other help from other buildings inspectors until more crane inspectors are hired.

In April, New York's inspector general also found that a state employee approved crane operator licenses for more than 200 people who had failed a state licensing exam.

Without updated standards that are enforced equally around the country, industry experts fear that deadly accidents will continue.

"Now that cranes have really come into play in the mind's eye with all of these accidents, maybe we'll get somewhere," said Lindsey, the Missouri crane operator. "We've got a lot of lives in our hands when swinging one of those things around."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25063876/


© 2008 MSNBC.com