Rollback of truck safety rules may be just the beginning

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — The trucking industry scored a victory this week when Republican lawmakers effectively blocked Obama administration safety rules aimed at keeping tired truckers off the highway.

The trucking industry's latest win has sparked concern among safety advocates that it may be just the start of a broad rollback of transportation safety regulations once there's no longer a Democratic president to check the tendency of Republican lawmakers to side with industry.

"Unfortunately, it's going to be an open season on safety in this coming Congress," said Jim Hall, who was chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board during the Clinton administration.

Besides pre-empting state laws on rest breaks, it's also likely that shippers and some segments of the trucking industry will push for long-sought goals of increasing the weight limit on trucks to more than 90,000 pounds and increasing the length of individual trailers from 28 feet to 33 feet, safety advocates said.

If you're fatigued, take a half-hour, hour nap.

Besides truck safety, Congress is also likely to be asked to deal with a wide range of other transportation safety concerns.