ATA offers California idling survey

The American Trucking Associations has been asked by the California Air Resources Board to help gauge how prepared trucking companies are for an upcoming change in the state’s idling laws.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2008, sleeping or resting in a sleeper berth will not be exempt from California’s statewide five-minute idling limit. Once the change takes effect, idling will not be a legal option for truckers who want to keep their cabs comfortable while resting. Trucking companies doing business in California are asked to complete a brief survey at www.truckline.com/carb_idlereg. Source

Crash claims eight lives

A Sturgis man was one of eight people killed on the I-80/90 Toll Road near Bristol Thursday morning.

Mark S. Repp of Sturgis was the driver of a Ford 150 pickup truck and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Troopers from the Indiana State Police said that three semis and four vehicles were involved in the crash.

“The crash scene resembled a battle zone with debris of the vehicles scattered across the westbound lanes of the Toll Road,” Indiana State Trooper Pete Bradley said.

The preliminary cause of the crash is attributed to driver inattention.

It is unknown at this time if speed or weather was a contributing factor.

Another witness said that the trucks appeared to be driving fast and exhibiting “aggressive driving.”

‘‘There are thousands of people that travel these roads everyday. All it takes is one person not paying attention for a split second to cause these accidents,’’ State Police Sgt. Trent Smith said.

The crash occurred in the westbound lanes at the 102.8 mile point, about one mile east of the Bristol bridge construction zone.

The Indiana State Police received the first calls on the crash at 6:42 a.m.

Police said that their initial investigation revealed that traffic in the westbound lanes had slowed and stopped in some areas as a wrecker removed a tractor-trailer from the median about two miles west of the crash location.

The earlier and unrelated crash caused a traffic backup for westbound vehicles.

It is believed that the 2006 Volvo semi, registered to New England Motor Freight from Elizabeth, N.J., initiated the chain reaction crash.

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One injured when lost cement load causes chain of vehicle accidents

HUNTINGTON — Interstate 64 re-opened about 9:40 a.m. Thursday, about one hour after a flat-bed truck lost a portion of its load just west of the Hal Greer Boulevard exit.

Police and witnesses said the truck was hauling powdered cement, but some of the load exploded into a cloud of dust when it fell off the truck and landed on Interstate 64. Witnesses said the cloud of dust made it nearly impossible to see.

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4 die in Kentucky truck-SUV collision

SPRINGFIELD, Ky. — A woman and three children were killed today when the sport-utility vehicle in which they were riding collided with a tractor-trailer truck on a Central Kentucky highway, officials said.

The SUV was headed south on Ky. 55 when it crossed the median and struck the truck, said Len Benedict, a deputy coroner in Washington County. The SUV caught fire and burned after the crash.

Officials will perform an autopsy tomorrow on the female driver of the SUV, Benedict said.

State police said the accident occurred around 8 a.m. EDT, less than a mile south of Springfield.

The woman is believed to be the mother of the three young children, 1- and 7-year-old girls and a 6-year-old boy, Benedict said.

Their names were not released.

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Meyers says Michael Kozlowski’s truck flipped at 70 mph

HUDSON — The prosecution’s final scheduled witness in the two-week trial of Michael Kozlowski said Tuesday afternoon that the truck driver was going roughly 70 mph when he flipped the tractor trailer across both lanes of Interstate 94.

Kozlowski, 24, of Schererville, Ind., is on in the October 2005 fatal crash involving a bus carrying members of the Chippewa Falls High School marching band.

Sgt. Duane Meyers, an accident reconstruction specialist for the Wisconsin State Patrol, was the final witness in the prosecution’s case.

Meyers, the lead investigator at the Osseo crash scene, spent 90 minutes in the St. Croix County courtroom Tuesday going over the specifics of the crash scene and his reconstruction data.

“Looking at the factors of vehicle speed and the directional pull toward the shoulder, it’s consistent with a driver unintentionally pulling over to the side of the road,” Meyers said of the semi Kozlowski was driving.

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Empty tank on trailer falls onto road

SAN DIEGO – A tractor-trailer rig overturned on Interstate 805 in Mission Valley tonight and an empty tank fell off the trailer and plummeted onto Camino del Rio South, authorities said.

No injuries were reported.

Fearing that the tank might have contained hazardous chemicals, San Diego police and the California Highway Patrol blocked lanes and closed the ramp from northbound I-805 to Interstate 8 after the 9:15 p.m. accident.

Police said they were told the tank was empty. Hazardous-materials crews and firefighters responded. Some diesel fuel spilled from the tractor, which had been pulling the flatbed trailer and tank on transition lanes from I-805 to I-8.

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