Last week's Wise County Commissioners meeting had an interesting tidbit. The DPS wants the county to build ANOTHER weight station on US287. They already have 3 in the county. 2 on TX114 (one outside Bridgeport and another outside Rhome) and a brand new state of the art station (The Robert Rankin Tollbooth & Revenue Center) at 287 & 380.
This is in addition to the mobile units already on patrol.
Now, those (and the money spent on them) are useless until they have another?
This county has gone mad with enforcement against trucks.
If there's a wreck involving a truck, it's the truck's fault. Joe Duty will show you so.
It doesn't matter if it involves a car that ignored road signs or did not pay attention to their surroundings. If there was a truck involved, it was a "commercial vehicle accident".
At least one County Commissioner had the balls to ask "Do we REALLY need this?"
Of course the DPS's answer was "YES!!!!"
You can only milk a cow for so long before she goes dry. If you drive the trucks out of business, the roads will be safer. But then again you will have less cars and trucks on the road because there will be less people that can afford a car because they are out of work.
We need to start thinking "WWMD", (What Would Mayberry Do) not "WWBFD" (What Would Barney Fife Do). I don't mean that as an insult. It refers to level of enforcement. Remember Checkpoint Chickie? You can only hold your boot against the jugular for so long before the body dies. The current enforcement is tough enough.
The same applies to the recent "No Refusal" Weekend. We don't need to be strapping people down on a table to extract their precious bodily fluids. We should be devising a way to get people that have overindulged safely home. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Why not assign community service to a Taxi service? Would that not save as many or more lives than picking up trash along the roads? The answer is "Yes, it would". The problem is it would cut deeply into the amount of funds the county collects from DWI's.
The lack of public transportation in WC only feeds the DWI beast. You can't just "call a Taxi" or "take the Bus" because there is not Taxi or Bus service available here.
Here's my solution to both problems:
Take the money the state wants us to spend on a new weight station and use it to fund a "Tipsy Taxi" program. You call we get you home. See which one saves more lives.
Station a DOT trooper at the scalehouse (or exit) of the crusher and do not allow an overweight truck to leave. See if accidents drop.
Somehow, I doubt the State or County would agree to that experiment.
5 comments:
Have you been to Denton County? Their Sheriffs Office has a whole unit dedicated to Commercial vehicle inspection.
Don't kid yourself. It's about increasing revenue! NOTHING ELSE!
The problem with weight stations is that the truckers will take a different route because it's faster than stopping at a station.
Safety is not their priority, it's fines and fees that's the new revenue stream... they have taxed the people to death, commissioners have found another way to fleece business!
You are being too reasonable and rational.
I never understood what the weigh stations were for. My county is CRAZY so now I don't feel so bad.
I was talking to a State law enforcement officer today who opined that truckers should be pulled over more frequently, not less, for such things as checking fuel dye, permits, etc.
While I understood his perspective, I can't say I'm really keen on the ascendancy of the Nanny/Big Brother State.
Seems Orwellian to me.
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