Monday, May 7, 2007

Authorities To Educate Truckers On Trailer Safety

DUSTERRM
Message #2 - 05/03/07 03:54 PM
Here is your story:
http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_108143014.html
Authorities To Educate Truckers On Trailer Safety

(KDKA) PITTSBURGH One year ago, a wood chipper broke loose and collided with a minivan, killing Spencer, Garret and Alaina Morrison on Route 8.

Ethan Morrison, who was four years old at the time, survived.

Now, with the support of Spencer’s widow, Nicole, authorities are trying to prevent those types of accidents from ever happening again.

The effort, which involves city, county and State police is called Operation Soar.

Law enforcement officials are banding together to educate truckers and to crack down on the ones who haven’t learned their lesson.

"These people are on notice. These companies are on notice. And the fines may be relatively minor, but they're on notice they've created a dangerous situation on these highways, and if something bad happens from that, the ramifications, especially criminally, are much more substantial," District Attorney Stephen Zappala said.

Local trucking companies call it a big step in the right direction.

“It's always been one of our initiatives, to have safe operation of our vehicles,” Ron Uriah, from Pitt Ohio Express Trucking, said.

On Saturday at police headquarters on the North Side, crews will perform courtesy checks. The event is part of the effort that began along Route 8 after the Morrison tragedy.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)


And here is a recent news article on a women who lost her leg...

Do you think her 6 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER SHOULD WITNESS HER MOTHER
GETTING HURT???

If this happend to your wife would you change your mind?

Where is the Insurance Indusry???


By John B. Carpenter
HERALD-NEWS EDITOR

A Spring City woman was seriously injured and had to have part of her right leg amputated after a runaway trailer crashed into her car Saturday afternoon.
Lori Overton, 43, of Spring City, was headed southbound in her 1994 Chevrolet pickup truck on Watts Bar Highway Saturday at about 3:40 p.m. Overton’s 6-year-old daughter was seated beside her in a secured booster seat.
Michael Allen Garrison, 28, also of Spring City was driving an Isuzu pickup truck north on Watts Bar Highway towing a large, double-axle trailer, about 16-18 feet long. The empty trailer’s tongue came off the truck’s ball hitch, and the trailer, which was not secured by safety chains, crossed the center line and crashed into Overton’s truck, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Phillip Dunn.
The trailer’s tongue penetrated the driver’s side of Overton’s truck and badly damaged her right leg. Her truck came to rest against the guardrail, with the trailer in the middle of the road.
Garrison stopped his pickup, got out and checked the damage, then got back in his truck and drove away, Dunn said.
Neither Garrison, nor his passenger, Jennifer McCampbell, 22, of Spring City, was injured in the crash.
Overton and her daughter were both transported by LifeForce medical helicopter to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga where surgeons were forced to remove part of Overton’s right leg. She was in serious but stable condition Monday, and her daughter was scheduled to be released after receiving treatment for minor injuries, Dunn said.
Garrison turned himself in at the Rhea County Jail Sunday evening. Dunn arrested him and charged him with driving on a suspended license and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. Garrison’s arraignment was scheduled for March 30, and he was released from the Rhea County Jail on a $13,000 bond.
John Carpenter can be reached at jcarpenter@xtn.net.

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