Schumer: Senate kills plan to allow extra-long trucks on interstates
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer talks to media on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 20, 2015. Credit: AP / Carolyn Kaster
The U.S. Senate has killed a proposal that would have allowed trucks up to 84 feet in overall length on interstate highways like the Long Island Expressway, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday.
"It's good news for all of Long Island and all of New York State that the Senate has pulled the emergency brake on this dangerous provision allowing trucks the size of an 8-story building on our roads," Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
The measure would have allowed a truck to carry two trailers of 33 feet each, up from the current 28 feet. With the cab of the truck and two 33-foot trailers, such trucks would be as long as an eight-story building laid on its side, or almost as long as the 90 feet between bases on a baseball field, the senator said.
The measure had been strongly supported by FedEx, Amazon and other shippers.
Schumer said there were 620 fatal crashes in New York State involving large trucks between 2009 and 2014, and 78 of them were on Long Island.
The legislation had passed the full House and the Senate Appropriations Committee with strong Republican backing. It was removed Wednesday by the full Senate at the insistence of Democrats, a Schumer spokesman said.
Shipping companies have testified before Congress that they need the additional room because a sharp increase in purchasing on the Internet has resulted in a flood of lightweight packages that do not load a truck to near the federal weight limit of 80,000 pounds.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has been studying rules on truck weight and length and recommended in June against changes pending further study. In July, Amazon vice president Paul Misener said at a congressional hearing that the 33-foot trucks would be safer because there would be fewer of them on the road driving fewer miles.
Schumer and others have said the longer trucks need a longer time to stop, but Misener told legislators that it was weight, not length, that affected stopping distance.
"We don't support heavier trucks," he said.
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