Security & Safety Briefs — April 27 - May 3
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The Latest Headlines:
- Utah Changes Law to Aid Trucking Students
- Northern Ohio Truckers to Be Spot-Searched for Weight
- Missouri CDL Testing Is in Question
- Woman in Human-Smuggling Case Gets 17 Years
- Northern Ohio Truckers to Be Spot-Searched for Weight
Utah Changes Law to Aid Trucking Students
Utah, which broke its own state law by issuing commercial driver’s licenses to non-residents if they enrolled in local truck-driving schools, ended those violations this week when trucking companies persuaded state lawmakers to legalize the practice, the Deseret Morning News reported Wednesday.The practice will technically violate federal law, but federal officials have told the state they do not plan to enforce the law while they wait to see if federal rules also will change, the Salt Lake City newspaper said.
In documents earlier obtained and reported by the newspaper, state investigators said they found that many nonresidents came to Utah merely to obtain a CDL, sometimes without proper testing and sometimes while visiting the state for only a day, it reported. Transport Topics
Northern Ohio Truckers to Be Spot-Searched for Weight
Truckers in Lorain County in northern Ohio soon will be searched to see if they are overloaded, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.The county engineer’s office working with the county sheriff will establish a portable-scales unit to protect motorists and to help decrease road damage from overweight trucks, the paper said.
Lorain County will become the 13th Ohio county to comply with a 53-year-old state law that requires sheriff’s offices to operate patrols with portable scales to weigh trucks that appear unsafe, the Plain Dealer reported.
The portable scales cost about $75,000. County engineers are required to pay for enforcing weight limits; in return, they keep the fines for road maintenance. Transport Topics
Missouri CDL Testing Is in Question
About 2,000 truck drivers will have to retake their commercial driver’s license tests because examiners did not watch them drive, the Associated Press reported.The the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigating one examination office that the state decertified and closed last April, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
In Missouri, CDL testing is done by third-party operators and offices operated by the patrol. State and federal law require that CDL applicants drive a truck in front of an examiner.
The 2,000 truck drivers who must retake the test include 800 who live in other states, and Missouri has sent 560 letters to truck drivers in Missouri, and to state licensing officials in other states, AP reported. Transport Topics
Woman in Human-Smuggling Case Gets 17 Years
A Honduran woman who ran a human-smuggling operation in which 19 illegal immigrants died inside a sweltering truck three years ago was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison, Reuters reported.The immigrants, among 74 crammed into a truck, died from heat and suffocation as they were being transported from the U.S.-Mexico border to Houston in May 2003, Reuters reported.
The woman, who is from Honduras but was living in the United States legally, had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants.
Thirteen others were arrested for their part in the deaths; most have pleaded guilty or been found guilty by a jury while a third remains to be tried and is potentially facing the death penalty. (Click here for previous coverage.) Transport Topics
