In a speech that kicked off a two-day Pennsylvania Truck Safety Symposium in Carlisle, Pa., Gov. Mark Schweiker unveiled a list of initiatives designed to make Pennsylvania roads safer.

Gov. Schweiker asked more than 200 participants to consider a wide range of measures, focusing on education, penalties and enforcement for both heavy truck and automobile drivers.
"Believe me when I tell you that I am very concerned about safety on our highways," Gov. Schweiker said. "I can say with confidence that I have traveled more miles of this great Commonwealth than most people. And I don't like some of the things I am seeing out there.
"Too often, safe driving is being replaced by careless driving. Some of our truck drivers are putting deadlines above safety. The same can be said for a great many of our automobile drivers as well. This behavior must end."
With a larger road system than all of New England and New York state combined, total crashes involving heavy trucks in 2000 were the highest in five years in Pennsylvania. Work-zone crashes also have been a cause for concern. Between 1996 and 2000, 100 people were killed in work-zone crashes. In 2000, 43 percent of all work-zone crashes involved passenger cars, while 32 percent were attributed to heavy trucks or buses.
Schweiker unveiled a list of initiatives, including:

• Targeting aggressive drivers;

• Exploring ways to improve driver education for both heavy truck and automobile drivers;

• Holding more frequent and random heavy-truck and waste-hauler inspections (including the possibility of reducing the amount of weight - from 17,001 pounds to 10,001 pounds, that it takes to be considered a heavy truck, and thus subject to random inspections);

• Promoting more education and public awareness campaigns to ensure heavy-truck drivers, automobile drivers and work-zone employees share responsibility in making roadways safe;

• Requiring all commercial drivers to take a knowledge test before obtaining a commercial driver permit for Class A or B; and

• Examining how points and fines are given to all drivers committing violations in work zones.

"Some of these are things we can look into doing right away with the help of state agencies," Gov. Schweiker said. "Others will require the assistance of our partners in the Legislature."
The symposium grew out of a recommendation the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee made to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in July 2000. The committee's study on efforts to reduce crashes involving large trucks recommended that PennDOT take the lead in coordinating a statewide strategy and hold a symposium to deal with the issue. PennDOT formed a Commercial Driver and Vehicle Task Force to review the issue and hold the symposium. The task force will offer and review recommendations during the two-day symposium on what should be included in a comprehensive truck safety plan. The task force expects to make a report to the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee by July.
Symposium participants are scheduled to include state and federal transportation officials, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), as well as state and national trucking organizations.