Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 31
31, consider and take appropriate action on letter to members of the senate commerce, science and technology committee regarding federal trucking weight limit legislation.
and let me indicate my intention to call the cdbg item next.
mr. Eckstein.
>> we visited with the court about this issue last week.
we had been requested by naco and some of our other counties in Texas to write a letter in opposition to some particular legislation that would increase truck weights on both the interstate and local highways.
the court last week asked for two really points of improvement on our presentation.
one was to do more research into the safety consequences of overweight trucks on highways, and secondly to -- the court suggested that we might want to draft a letter to all the members of the committee as opposed to just our home state senators, senators cornyn and hutchinson.
with respect to the information about the safety issues, we were able to put together some information to summarize it, there were approximately in 2009, which is the last year we have data for, there were 296,000 crashes in the united states that involved large trucks.
they caused 53,000 injuries and 3,215 fatalities.
we were able to look at data for Texas and find out that there were 315 of those fatalities were in Texas including five here in Travis County.
so there is certainly a safety component to the issue of large trucks on highways.
we were not able to find specific data about whether overweight trucks or the longer trucks, you see these double trailer trucks, added to that or how that affected it, but we do have the logical argument, of course, that the heavier the truck, the harder it is to stop, the harder it is to control once it gets out of control and so forth.
so that was the information that we found on safety.
we have worked some of that information into the proposed draft letter to the members of the committee and would present that to the court for its review and approval.
>> questions or comments?
>> I just have -- have you seen the way people drive out there in their cars?
you know, and I wonder how many cars actually cause the trucks to jackknife and other things, especially when it's raining.
and there seems to be -- you know, I don't know what we can do about that, but it seems like the improvement of driver ed or, you know, people are driving habits are.
seems like that would be something that would need to be addressed as well.
you can't blame it all on the truckers, you know, from what I've seen, people coming from the extreme right and they get in front of everybody to make a -- to get off the ramp, just to get off the highway.
and that seems to be the new way of driving.
or go from the left in front of you and in front of other cars to get to the extreme right.
seems to be a new way of driving.
>> I drive in mortal terror at all times, Commissioner.
and I think you are right.
we did look at some statistics and I forgot to bring them downstairs with me, but I think, you know, you are pointing out something that's very correct.
we talked about 296,000 accidents involving large trucks.
well, there's millions of accidents involving passenger cars.
probably on the order, you know, we're probably talking on a scale of ten to one or something like that.
I think that the concern about the large trucks is both that safety aspect and the aspect of the wear and tear that they put on roads.
because the damage large trucks, particularly overweight trucks, cause to roads is much more geometricly greater than the damage caused by regular passenger cars.
and so I think the concern that naco has and I think the county staff has is with both the safety aspects that you've referred to and with the wear and tear on roads and the maintenance problems that are caused by -- for us and for other governmental entities who have to repair and maintain roads.
>> it's just that the fatalities, you know, add up with the cars, the passenger cars, and if they have passengers with them and they are driving very haphazardly and dangerously, it just -- I don't know what number or what percentage that is of this 296,000 accidents.
>> there was not a way to separate out, I mean, of course, there were 296,000 crashes involving those trucks.
presumably they crashed into something else and in most cases that would have been a passenger car or light truck, but I was not able to sort that information out from the data we had.
we were able to get some data about Travis County specific fatalities and I'll share that data with the members of the court.
the five deaths that occurred in Travis County from accidents in which large trucks were involved were I think part of a total that was somewhere just over 100 or so.
so they were significant part of the total for Travis County.
we'll get those numbers to the court.
>> thank you.
>> remind me of the appropriate protocol here.
we're sending this letter or about to send this letter to 25 senators.
there's a long list when you list 25 of them by title and address.
should we send an individual letter to each one of them or should we just send one letter to 25, I guess --
>> we decided to draft it as -- I think either way is fine, judge.
we decided to draft it as the one letter to all 25.
but we certainly could prepare a letter for all of y'all to sign that had 25 -- or we could prepare 25 letters for your signature if that's the court's preference.
>> you have a list of people to whom this letter is being sent is longer than the letter itself.
I would send an original to each one of them.
move that we send it.
>> second.
>> any discussion on the motion?
>> judge, I just wanted to add the attached memo from don ward is significant as the fiscal impact of the increased size.
these large trucks don't just operate on the interstate system, they have to get there and get off and go places.
and our current budget in these tough economic times, the impact on or own roads and the cost to the county and taxpayers could be huge.
I just wanted to point that out.
>> should we attach it?
>> I think so, judge.
we had a pretty deep discussion last week on that about the damage they do to our county roads.
and even t.n.r.
came before us last week when that question was posed to the court and at that time I had asked for an assessment as far as the amount of money that we thought would be out of pocket that the county has to deal with as far as damage to our roads by these heavy trucks.
so it just appears to me that it needs to be mentioned somewhere in that line as far as attached to the letter.
it just needs to be mentioned, I think.
>> attaching the letter is friendly to me.
>> okay, thank you.
>> Commissioner Huber, friendly to you?
>> absolutely.
>> any more discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you very much.
>> a point of clarification, do we want 25 letters or one letter.
>> 25.
>> I didn't hear the end of that.
>> 250.
okay, yes, sir.
>> I'm assuming that the senator's egos are as big takes Commissioners court members, mr. Eckstein.
in the name of consistency.
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