Truckers

L ast week's column in which I nominated tractor-trailer drivers who let their rigs jackknife on Maryland highways as Public Enemy No. 1 certainly caught the attention of truckers far and wide. I never knew there were so many synonyms for "idiot." Many of the e-mails that poured in questioned my qualifications to opine on the subject of truck-driving or demanded an apology for daring to criticize truckers whose incompetence leads to crashes that choke the state's most critical roadways at the worst possible times.

— Just after dawn Tuesday, law enforcement officers began yanking hundreds of trucks off the Capital Beltway and funneling them to an inspection lot a long touchdown pass from FedEx Field. The truck-safety dragnet pulled over 420 rigs and resulted in 12 drivers and 87 vehicles being taken off the road. Offenses ranged from falsified log books and drivers spending too many hours behind the wheel to bad tires and defective brakes. "Within an hour, drivers from Maine to Florida will know we're out here," said State Police Capt.

Surrounded by dozens of commercial 18-wheelers on the parking lot behind Truckers Inn in Jessup is a very eye-catching trailer.Large crosses decorate the exterior of the immobile trailer, and big lettering on the side announces: "God's Trucking Ministry" and "Chapel."Inside are eight wooden chairs grouped together and a lectern, where the Rev. James R. Brown often stands.The ordained minister uses the trailer-turned-chapel to counsel and uplift men and women truckers who are constantly on the road and need spiritual guidance and a friendly shoulder.

With the stunning end to Maryland's General Assembly, many have opined of the need to raise the gas tax in the anticipated special session ("Baltimore gets stranded," April 17). Supporters state that the "business community" overwhelmingly favors such an increase. Notably, many in the "business community" that favor the gas tax represent businesses that do not actually own vehicles. As a representative of the trucking industry which delivers the food, clothing, medicine and other goods Marylanders use, I can tell you that such support among businesses is hardly universal.

FREDERICK -- They come here from Way Out There, from just about every state you can name, traveling thousands of miles in the big rigs, hauling what the United States eats and wears and uses. Robert Klein, for instance, left his home in Nebraska and made stops in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, picked up a cargo of frozen seafood, then traveled cross-country to New Jersey and Pennsylvania before winding up in Maryland.And he did all this in too short a time to mention, which means maybe he stretched the rules on driving without rest.

UPON READING last week's column about safety tips for driving around big trucks, Columbia's Don Oliver e-mailed that he expected I would hear from many readers about giving trucks room for safety. He was correct. Most of your comments focused on trucks tailgating. He did agree, however, that it is in everyone's best interest to give them room. "But, far too often I find myself being tailgated by an 18-wheeled monster, even in the right lane. Truckers endanger drivers by speeding, driving when tired and most importantly, by tailgating," Oliver said.

His "church" is a motel security office, with a view of some diesel pumps in East Baltimore. His pulpit is a desk piled with electronic equipment, including police scanners, a couple of microphones and a 40-channel citizens band radio. And his congregation includes "The Rubber Duck," "Low Rider," "The Destroyer" and "Bandit."Meet the Rev. S. Anthony Battaglia, better known to his flock as "The Chaplain Man."Mr. Battaglia, 60, was hired three years ago by the Baltimore Port Truck Plaza, a truck stop off O'Donnell Street, to use a CB radio to give truckers directions around the city.

Country fried steak is the hottest item on the menu, and the motors of 18-wheelers hum all night long. T. A. Baltimore South -- long known as the Truckers Inn and one of the largest truckstops on the East Coast -- is a refuge for hundreds of long-distance drivers a day.The lights never go out on these 26 paved acres at the intersection of Interstate 95, U.S. 1 and Maryland Route 175 in Jessup -- a round-the-clock pit stop luring all manner of travelers....

If a proposed new 5 percent motor fuel tax is approved by the General Assembly, some disgruntled tractor-trailer drivers said yesterday they plan to keep on trucking -- driving their 18-wheelers non-stop past Maryland's costly gas and diesel pumps."

ANNAPOLIS -- If ordinary motorists wind up paying 6 cents a gallon more for gasoline over the next eight months while truckers don't, they can look to a back-room deal brokered by a politically connected Baltimore baker and truck stop owner.In the hallway behind the state Senate chamber, beyond the sign that bars ordinary lobbyists, John Paterakis presented himself earlier this week to complain about a bill that would raise the state's tax on diesel fuel.With the aid of a friendly senator and some leverage on an unrelated bill transportation officials desperately want, Mr. Paterakis appears close to getting what he wants: a delay in the full tax increase on the fuel truckers buy.The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee yesterday passed a bill that would increase Maryland's tax on gasoline by 6 cents a gallon, to 24.5 cents, starting May 1. The House earlier passed a nickel-a-gallon increase.

Joseph F. Radomsky Jr., a retired truck driver and a sports fan, died Sunday of cancer at Franklin Woods Center in White Marsh. The Essex resident was 72. Mr. Radomsky was born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown. He attended city public schools and briefly served in the Navy in the mid-1950s. A longtime local truck driver, Mr. Radomsky worked for Anchor Trucking and later USF Red Star until his 2001 retirement. He was an active member of Teamsters Local No. 557. He was a Ravens and Orioles fan and had been a former longtime member of the Little Beavers Club, a Highlandtown social club.

The local trucker who police say was driving the tanker that leaked a 40-mile ribbon of roofing asphalt onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike last week, snarling holiday traffic and damaging hundreds of cars, has been issued two tickets. George Delaney, 50, of Glen Burnie, received citations from Pennsylvania State Police for failure to secure a load and failure to obey a state trooper. The trucking company, MTS Express LLC of Stevensville, has placed Delaney on administrative leave and impounded the truck.

A 25-year-old Washington man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years for shooting a fellow trucker in the hand and leg at a Jessup convenience store in November 2008. Douglas Howard had pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in the attack on Jaimie Dennis at a Royal Farms store in the 8600 block of Washington Blvd. The men had argued about the price of a vehicle Dennis had arranged to sell for Howard. Dennis identified Howard to police while being treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. In Howard County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Judge Richard S. Bernhardt suspended all but five years of a 20-year sentence for the assault and added five years for using a handgun in the commission of a violent crime.

L ast week's column in which I nominated tractor-trailer drivers who let their rigs jackknife on Maryland highways as Public Enemy No. 1 certainly caught the attention of truckers far and wide. I never knew there were so many synonyms for "idiot." Many of the e-mails that poured in questioned my qualifications to opine on the subject of truck-driving or demanded an apology for daring to criticize truckers whose incompetence leads to crashes that choke the state's most critical roadways at the worst possible times.

Over vocal objections from the public, the Maryland Transportation Authority's board voted yesterday to raise truck tolls at its bridges and tunnels on Interstate 95 and to impose a $1.50-a-month fee on its E-ZPass customers. The board voted unanimously after hearing comments from Marylanders who turned out for a public meeting near the Key Bridge on the authority's proposed package of revenue increases - designed to make up for a shortfall caused by a drop in traffic that is part of a national decline in driving.

The Maryland Transportation Authority is in a familiar pickle. When revenues fall and costs increase, its options are limited. Despite some recent belt-tightening, authority members had little choice but to raise tolls to stay solvent and ensure that the authority's bond holders are not put at risk. What's notable about the MdTA's recently revealed plans is not the choice to charge drivers an extra $60 million a year so much as the policy decisions that are coming along for the ride. The agency wants to collect more from truck traffic and to reduce the generous subsidy given E-ZPass customers.

PARIS - A truckers' strike protesting the rising cost of fuel, which had begun to cripple supplies around the country, seemed to lose some of its momentum yesterday as the leader of France's largest truckers' group urged its members to lift their blockades at more than 90 of the country's major fuel depots. But many truckers - perhaps encouraged by a poll that suggested that more than 80 percent of the country supported them - appeared to defy their leader. And a smaller union said its members would continue the protest as well.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- A Canadian independent truckers group, frustrated with higher costs and increased competition from the United States, have blocked two international border crossings in Ontario, Canadian transportation industry officials said yesterday.David Bradley, vice president of the Ontario Trucking Association, told Knight-Ridder Financial News that the blockades by the independent truckers started yesterday morning. He said he did not know how long the blockades would last.The Ambassador Bridge that connects Windsor with Detroit and the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge at Niagara Falls were blocked to truck traffic, but passenger traffic was getting through, he said.

Last week, safety advocates petitioned the federal government to reconsider a recent decision to allow truckers to work longer hours. The new regulations deserve more than reconsideration; they ought to be completely dismissed as a regrettable four-year experiment by the Bush administration. Truckers used to be limited to driving no more than 10 hours straight, but in 2004, the industry successfully lobbied to have them expanded on an interim basis to 11 hours. Has the 11th hour made the roads more dangerous?

Truckers, longshoremen and other workers waited for hours yesterday as they attempted to secure a federal identification card without which they cannot get to their jobs in the port of Baltimore. A top port official said the problem stemmed in part from a three-week computer outage that delayed issuance of the cards by a contractor for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. Yesterday afternoon, more than 100 workers - many of whom said they had been cooling their heels since as early as 6 a.m. - crowded into the closed cafeteria of an office building in Southeast Baltimore waiting for news on when they might be allowed upstairs to pick up their federally required Transportation Workers Identification Credentials.