STAND BACK - Overweight Coal Trucks Comin' Down The Mountain

(06/20/2002)

By Bob Weaver Decision time is nearing for a panel to recommend the future of overweight coal trucks. If history be the source, the group will seek to legalize the monster trucks. The Underwood administration sent word down not to ticket the trucks, even when the overloads reached 160,000 pounds. The weight limits are currently 65,000 on primary roads, 80,000 pounds on the interstate. More than a dozen West Virginian's have died in coal truck wrecks in the past several months, dozens of others maimed. The industry has "proved" that bigger trucks are safer at the committee meetings. The trucks, their drivers, owners and mine workers have been held hostage by King Coal. Coal companies have told the legislature weight limits will kill the industry. The trucks have crushed the state's highways and and damaged bridges to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars. The new rules are likely to make it legal, rather than continued abuse. The Charleston Gazette said it is much like the joke of legislators declaring beer "non-intoxicating," a few years ago.

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