After years of carrying grossly overweight loads on West Virginia's highways, coal haulers are being targeted because of growing safety concerns.

The controversy has included failed bills in the state legislature and a protest by coal truckers. In the latest developments, Gov. Bob Wise has named a panel to come up with solutions and coal hauling companies have been ordered to turn over subpoenaed records.
Wise named six administration officials and four legislators to the coal truck panel. The group will hold a series of regional hearings and is expected to issue a report by early June. That report likely will form the basis of legislation to be introduced later this year in a special legislative session. Wise and lawmakers did not add citizens to the group, saying it would make the panel "cumbersome" and "nonproductive."
In addition, a judge ruled last week that coal operators and haulers must hand over truck weight tickets and other records demanded by the state attorney general. The subpoenas, issued last year, are part of an antitrust investigation. State officials suspect that coal operators have conspired to control the coal truck hauling market, including using political clout to encourage lax enforcement of weight limits. The companies had argued that the attorney general was "trying to turn an antitrust investigation into an overweight coal truck investigation<" and that the documents were "irrelevant."
Coal trucks have run at weights more than double the 80,000-pound limit for more than two decades, especially in the southern part of the state. Safety advocates, spurred by a rash of fatal crashes involving overweight coal trucks, helped introduce legislation to strictly enforce existing weight limits and increase penalties for violators. The bill would have quintupled fines, to a maximum of $7,500 per violation. It also called for increased enforcement and tightened reporting requirements for shippers. Amendments would have seen trucks required to use tarps, have quarterly inspections and abide by 45-mph speed limits. The state's coal industry said the bill would be devastating for their business.
Coal haulers had sought a compromise bill in the recent legislative session that would have put West Virginia's limit at 120,000 pounds in exchange for other safety measures and tougher enforcement of the higher limit. The legal limit in neighboring coal state Kentucky is 120,000 pounds.
Neither measure passed, but in March, the governor ordered state agencies to work together to crack down on weight enforcement. Truckers and coal companies protested, saying strict enforcement would put them out of business. Enforcement since has continued, but at a reduced rate. There appears to be an unofficial compromise that trucks under 120,000 pounds will not be targeted, or will be given warning tickets.
Cameron Lewis, director of enforcement for the state Division of Highways, acknowledged that most southern counties in the state give coal haulers a break on overweight citations. According to The Charleston Gazette, some prosecutors and magistrates reduce the weight on the citation, and thus the fine, some cutting it in half. The maximum fine is $1,600.