Are Connecticuts trucks safe?
Or consider the following: It is conventional wisdom that Mexican trucks are unsafe, but how safe are Connecticut’s trucks? Each year, the Federal Highway Administration and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (a NAFTA standards setting body) jointly sponsor an event called the International Highway Transportation Safety Week. Activities include safety inspections of commercial trucks in all fifty states and parts of Canada. In the year with the most recent available data, 1998, the best state was Arkansas, with only 16.9% of its trucks placed out of service. Connecticut was the worst state, with a 44% out-of-service rate, which was actually an improvement over its 1997 rate of 53%. Mexican trucks are not allowed free range across the U.S., ostensibly because of their 45% out-of-service rate in 1996 – a rate that everyone agrees is much less today. Connecticut’s trucks can go anywhere. Nothing is as it seems in the topsy-turvy political fight over NAFTA trucking. This issue of the C
