MAINE TRUCK CRASH FAMILIES APPALLED BY SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS’ SUPPORT FOR ANTI-TRUCK SAFETY LEGISLATION
SENATOR COLLINS ACTIONS WILL INCREASE TRUCK DRIVER FATIGUE AND ROADWAY DANGERS
Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) Founder and 2014 White House Transportation Champion of Change Recipient Speaks Out
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 2, 2014)—Less than one month after being recognized by the White House as a 2014 Transportation Champion of Change for her work to reduce truck driver fatigue and require electronic logging devices (ELDs) in trucks, Daphne Izer was outraged to learn that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) supports legislation to roll back truck safety improvements in the truck driver hours of service (HOS) rule. The HOS rule contains measures to help reduce truck driver fatigue, including the 34-hour restart provisions and a mandatory half hour rest break. These improvements are based on more than 25 years of scientific and medical research and should not be arbitrarily removed, reduced or altered.
Daphne Izer, Founder of Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) said, “I have whiplash—one month ago I was in the White House celebrating vital improvements to reduce truck driver fatigue, and now my own Senator is using her power as Ranking Member on the THUD Appropriations Subcommittee to undo a rule which will result in more overly tired truckers on our roads. Twenty-five years of research and deliberations over the HOS rule—gone with the swish of her pen.”
Izer continued, “I’m not a well-paid Capitol Hill lobbyist, just a mom from Lisbon, Maine. I’m shocked that Senator Collins would do the bidding of the trucking companies. What are her priorities—special truck interests or our families?”
Christina Mahaney, whose five-year old son Liam was killed when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his 104,000 pound log truck into her family’s home in Jackman, Maine, added, “Next month will be the third anniversary of losing Liam, and I can’t image a worse way to mark our anniversary. Senator Collins should be supporting truck safety improvements to keep our families safe and whole, not special interest giveaways.”
Izer added, “As we’re taking a step forward to reduce truck driver fatigue by inching closer to the ELD rule, Senator Collins would roll back safety benefits of the HOS rule. We should not allow any step backwards in safety, and I urge the White House and DOT Secretary Foxx to vigorously defend its HOS rule.”
With her husband Steve Izer, Daphne founded the nonprofit safety organization, PATT, after her son, Jeff Izer (age 17), and three of his friends were killed and one seriously injured in a preventable truck crash by a fatigued truck driver. Since then, Daphne has worked to advance truck safety to help prevent other families from suffering a similar, devastating loss.
The Truck Safety Coalition (www.trucksafety.org), a partnership between the Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) Foundation and Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), is dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries caused by truck-related crashes, providing compassionate support to truck crash survivors and families of truck crash victims, and educating the public, policy-makers and media about truck safety issues.
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