Testing of Triple-Trailers in California Sparks Safety Debate

Southern California drivers bound for the casinos of Las Vegas would have to share the desert highway with the triple-trailer trucks now banned in most states if Congress approves a request being formulated by the trucking industry.

Under a demonstration project being contemplated by the California Trucking Assn. and Barstow-area political and business leaders, the trucks would be allowed to come into the state from Nevada and Arizona on Interstates 15 and 40 and travel as far west as the Cajon Pass.

The association has said that the trucks would not be allowed to venture farther south onto congested Los Angeles-area freeways. But critics claim that the move is just one step in the industry’s overall effort to legalize the train-like trucks throughout the United States.

If the desert pilot program is approved by Congress, opponents say, eventually the trucks will be routed into Los Angeles and other congested areas.

“This demonstration project would break California’s tradition of prohibiting these big trucks,” said Layna Browdy, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California. She said the organization opposes the project because the trucks would put automobile drivers at risk.

The truckers dismiss her fears, saying that the truly big rigs will never be used outside the wide-open desert.

“We’re not talking about the rest of California,” said Warren Hoemann, the trucking association’s high desert project manager. He contends that the trucks are designed only to carry huge loads of freight to central hubs in rural areas and could not utilize smaller urban terminals.

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Triple-trailer trucks, legal in 16 states, are 105 feet long and can weigh as much as 115 tons. The biggest trucks now allowed in California are double trailers 65 feet long weighing as much as 80 tons.

In 1991 the federal government instituted a freeze on truck length and weight increases--allowing trucking companies to operate the triples only in the states that already permitted them.

But a handful of states successfully lobbied for exemptions.

The project was conceived by politicians--including San Bernardino County Supervisor Kathy Davis--as one weapon against the area’s high unemployment rate by making the desert area a major transportation hub, Hoemann said.

Studies by the California Trucking Assn. have shown that the project would create as many as 1,500 jobs over five years in such fields as warehouse construction and retail sales, bringing as much as $3.5 million annually into the local tax base.

Critics have attacked the project, saying it creates a safety hazard to auto drivers on the heavily traveled interstate.

The trucks “are much longer and much heavier,” said Michael Scippa, executive director of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways. “There are inherent dangers associated just with the hardware.”

Triples have a cab, three trailers and two dollies linking trailers. Each connection is a flexible point, increasing the potential for jackknifing, Scippa said.

“All those connections are vulnerable points,” he said. “If the driver has to turn the wheel, that motion is amplified throughout the truck.”

Even in normal motion, the tail end of the third trailer sways from side to side as much as four feet, critics say.

Interstate 15 “is already a very dangerous roadway. If you introduce triples it just gets much worse,” said former Assemblyman Richard Katz of Sylmar, who chaired the state transportation committee and is now a CRASH board member.

Critics also say that bridges, overpasses and other parts of the highway would be damaged more quickly because they are not designed to support the triples’ weight, which is carried on seven axles.

But the trucking association points to 1995 statistics produced by the 16 states that use triples on certain routes, which indicate that the trucks are involved in far fewer accidents than other vehicles.

In Nevada, there were 50,045 accidents involving only automobiles that year, 2,182 involving normal commercial trucks and only six involving triples. Arizona did not have a single accident involving a triple.

“People have legitimate safety concerns about traffic going to Las Vegas, but these are the safest vehicles on the road,” Hoemann said.

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As part of an overall package of conditions, the association would agree not to run the trucks Friday and Sunday afternoons--when Los Angeles-area travelers are most likely to be driving to or from Las Vegas, Hoemann said.

Critics say the safety statistics are misleading.

For one, there are not that many triples in states where they are allowed. The ones in operation are strictly regulated; they are restricted to approved routes and prohibited from running in inclement weather, and drivers get special training.

Also, the highways in those states are less congested than in Southern California, critics of the trucks say.

“If there are not that many [triples] out there, there are not going to be that many crashes,” said Elisa Braver, senior research analyst for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a Virginia-based group that has lobbied against the trucks.

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“The real question is, what is going to happen if you allow less selective use of the vehicles?”

Hoemann said the use of the trucks would be just as regulated in California and therefore should be just as safe as in the other states.

The submission to Congress is still being worked on by the California Trucking Assn., Hoemann said. If approved, the trucks would cross the border into California by mid-1998 at the earliest.

To date, the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans are neutral on the controversy.

Most local politicians say they need more details. Barstow Mayor Katy Yslas-Yent said: “I’d like to have a lot of questions answered--such as safety and how it all would work.”