AP Exclusive: Transport safety rules rolled back under Trump

[Rhiannon12866]

WASHINGTON (AP) — On a clear, dry June evening in 2015, cars and trucks rolled slowly in a herky-jerky backup ahead of an Interstate 75 construction zone in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Barreling toward them: an 18-ton tractor-trailer going about 80 mph.

Despite multiple signs warning of slow traffic, the driver, with little or no braking, bashed into eight vehicles before coming to a stop about 1½ football fields away. Six people died in the mangled wreck and four more were hurt. The driver was convicted of vehicular homicide and other charges last month.

In response to this and similar crashes, the government in 2016 proposed requiring that new heavy trucks have potentially life-saving software that would electronically limit speeds. But now, like many other safety rules in the works before President Donald Trump took office, it has been delayed indefinitely by the Transportation Department as part of a sweeping retreat from regulations that the president says slow the economy.

An Associated Press review of the department’s rulemaking activities in Trump’s first year in office shows at least a dozen safety rules that were under development or already adopted have been repealed, withdrawn, delayed or put on the back burner. In most cases, those rules are opposed by powerful industries. And the political appointees running the agencies that write the rules often come from the industries they regulate.


Much more: https://www.apnews.com/1936e77a11924c909880f1ef014c7ca7/AP-Exclusive:-Transport-safety-rules-rolled-back-under-Trump


This October 1, 2016, file photo, provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows damage done to the Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, N.J., after a commuter train crash. President Donald Trump is putting the brakes on attempts to address dangerous transportation safety problems from speeding tractor-trailers to sleepy railroad engineers as part of his quest to roll back regulations across the government. (Chris O’Neil/NTSB photo via AP, File)

[Sophia4]

1. This is insane. The software requirement made and makes sense.

If anyone dies in a truck accident that would have been prevented by this rule, Trump is responsible. We will not forget that.

How foolish can the Trump administration be?

[Rhiannon12866]

2. It truly boggles the mind!

To benefit his buddies in corporations, he's placing Americans in jeopardy - when we have consistently made progress in making life safer for workers, children, drivers, for as long as this country has existed!

[CozyMystery]

3. This is like playing Whack-A-Mole with no arms

Those moles keep popping up and we can't whack them back where they belong.

Every day, it's something else we have to worry about. Things are in such upheaval that it is hard to keep track of it all.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. That's exactly what it's like.

Suddenly there's nothing we can trust. The protections that we've come to count on are suddenly being taken away. What bizarre sense does that make??

[Amsterdammer]

4. But come on...

...We certainly are aware that Rs believe "regulation" is a 4-letter word.

IMO, it is viewed by the right as an infringement of their rights, that their government could hinder them from doing something they are desirous of doing. It begs to question MY rights, YOUR rights, to breath air of decent quality, to drink water from the tap that is deemed safe, to take my family to a movie and not have it end like the horror movie I paid to see, to feel safe about my savings or my contribution to my 401k.

Strange that it is often met with agregious push-back with safety issues, banking, environment, sensible gun laws. Think about how many situations we might have avoided with proper regulation (economic collapse in '08, multitudes of mass shootings, Flint water crisis, to name but a few) The right is simply not able to connect the dots to see that, in the right amounts, regulation is absolutely necessary. I would argue that over-regulation can hamper or damage industry as well though, and that we must always attempt proper balance of regulations.

[mnmoderatedem]

5. Step One: roll back safety regulations

Step Two: Blame Obama when a tragedy happens as a result.

[Lee-Lee]

6. Should go the other way and be required on cars too, not just trucks

When the proposal went out that was my hope, that like so many safety items this would get started with commercial users and eventually be mandated for all vehicles on the road of any types.