Security & Safety Briefs - March 2 - March 8

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The Latest Headlines:

• ATA’s Ag Haulers Create Bird Flu Task Force
• Senate Renews Patriot Act
• Wyoming Sets Regulations on Bridge River Crossing

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ATA’s Ag Haulers Create Bird Flu Task Force

The Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference said Tuesday it has established an Avian Flu Task Force to help prepare the trucking industry for the possibility of an influenza pandemic.

AFTC, part of American Trucking Associations, said it established the task force in response to the Bush administration’s policy, “National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza.”

The panel “was mobilized to map out industry scenarios and to keep abreast of federal, state, local, community and business planning initiatives to deal with a potential pandemic," said Fletcher Hall, AFTC’s executive director.

“It will focus on issues as they relate to trucking in general and the movement of agricultural and food products by truck in particular,” he said.

A bird flu pandemic could make the United States’ supply chain vulnerable, the Wall Street Journal reported in January. (Click here for previous coverage.) Transport Topics

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Senate Renews Patriot Act

The Senate passed the renewal of the Patriot Act Thursday by an 89-10 vote, the Associated Press reported.

he vote was months overdue and came only after a Democrat-led filibuster that attracted GOP support forced Bush to accept modest curbs on the government's power to investigate suspects in terror probes, AP said.

Passed in the weeks following 9/11, the original Patriot Act expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers.

The renewal package would make 14 of 16 temporary provisions permanent and set four-year expirations on the others. Transport Topics

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Wyoming Sets Regulations on Bridge River Crossing

Park County, Wyo., has reduced the speed limit and placed weight restrictions on traffic crossing the Willwood Bridge, which engineers have said is obsolete, the Associated Press reported.

Built in 1924, the bridge spans the Shoshone River.

New regulations prohibit any vehicle weighing more than 20 tons from using the bridge, in the northwest part of the state, and limit traffic weighing between 12 and 20 tons, depending on the type of vehicle. The speed limit was reduced to 20 mph.

Violators could be subject to a $500 fine and up to 30 days in jail, and could be held responsible for any damage done to the bridge. If drivers do not adhere to those restrictions, the bridge could be closed, AP said, citing officials. Transport Topics

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