Killer Editorials

It could have been the title of a new horror extravaganza from Steven King: “Killer Trucks.” Think of it. Maniacal, masked marauders perched behind the wheels of gigantic semis, preying on innocent VW bugs and station wagons full of smiling children.

Unfortunately, “Killer Trucks” wasn’t playing at your neighborhood cinema, it was on the editorial page of the Washington Post.

After drawing a dramatic word picture of “unsafe trucks flipping over, slamming into cars or otherwise spinning out of control,” the masters of the newspaper’s editorial page heartily endorsed Rep. Frank Wolf’s attempt to bypass the rules of Congress and shift the Office of Motor Carriers from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (TT, 10-26-98, p. 1).

Mr. Wolf, you may remember, attempted to sneak the OMC shift through by attaching it to the $500 billion spending bill Congress was considering last month. That strategy, of course, circumvented the rules that require public hearings.

Unfortunately, well-meaning people — and editorial writers — sometimes get confused and are unable to see that their brainstorms may cause more problems, or different problems, than the ones they came to fix.

And the Post went on to restate the misleading, and in some cases inaccurate, statistics that Mr. Wolf cited during his own press conference last month that purported to show that trucking fatalities are on the increase.

Fact is, figures still lie and liars still figure. Yes, there were more truck-involved fatal crashes in the nation last year, but more trucks drove more miles during that time. As a result, “fatal crash rate,” which the industry uses to measure its safety, went down during 1997 — the rate is determined by the number of fatal crashes per million miles driven.

So Mr. Wolf can say accidents are increasing, and the industry can say they are decreasing.

Fact is, everyone supports highway safety. And everyone in the trucking industry has to support efforts to improve the industry’s safety record.

ut not everyone has to agree that shifting truck-safety responsibility to NHTSA is a good idea.

Is OMC doing a good job? Can it be more effective? Would it make sense to shift truck-safety oversight to another agency, such as a full-fledged Federal Trucking Administration?

We don’t know, and neither does Mr. Wolf or the Washington Post. Let’s have some public hearings on Capitol Hill, and then let’s ask Congress to help all parties improve road safety in America.

259