Reid calls for ban of triple trailer trucks

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 1997 | 9:11 a.m.

"Triple trailer trucks are creating havoc on our nation's highways," Reid, D-Nev., said. "These rigs are too big and too unwieldy to be sharing the road with cars. It's a recipe for disaster. Just last week a Nevada driver was killed by a triple truck."

Reid's press conference Tuesday in Washington was organized by the Coalition Against Big Trucks and the Owner Operator Independents Drivers Association, a group of more than 37,000 drivers and small trucking companies.

Four members of the Senate Public Works Committee, including Reid, Committee Chairman John Chafee, R-R.I., and Sens. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., spoke out against attempts by big trucking interests to repeal the current freeze on additional triple trailer trucks and long double trucks.

"Driving next to a triple truck in a car is like being next to the Titanic in an inflatable life raft," Reid said. "These things are as long as 10-story buildings and we don't need 10-story buildings cluttering up our highways and terrifying drivers.

"I personally feel that we must do more than just continue the freeze on triples, we need to ban them outright."