Well it is about time, I hope that ALL would join in on this!

Florida, Minnesota and Colorado have also moved to join the band wagon in efforts to lesson the green house effects they say truck idling is harming.

Before you know it trucks will no longer be able to idle anywhere in the USA.

California began enforcing Jan. 1 2008 a new idling limit that no longer exempts sleeper-berth time, though it does exempt idling of trucks carrying temperature-dependent loads, performing safety or maintenance checks and “to prevent a health emergency.”

The state can deny registrations, renewals, and transfers until the citation has been cleared.

Karen Caesar, a spokeswoman for the California Air Resources Board has stated that the local police have been giving the authority to write citations for idiling for more than 5 minutes.

This could really hurt truck drivers, owners, and companies if the citation were to fall on or around the same time as their registration does. Because how long will it take for the court to clear it?

The Iowa State Patrol said Scott Nelson, 42, was was killed in a multi-vehicle accident.

According to the Dubuque County sheriff’s office there was heavy fog in the area at the time and officials closed part of the highway for several hours while investigating the accident.

Kendall Tews, 45, of Palmer, Ia., was driving an eastbound semi-tractor trailer truck when it collided with the back end of a car, officials said.

Both vehicles went into the median and the trailer came to rest across the
eastbound lanes of Highway 20.

A car driven by Lance Weipert of Dubuque struck the semi and came to rest on the south shoulder.

The Ford F350 driven by Nelson, which also was eastbound, “entered the collision area at highway speeds and struck the back end of the trailer,” the Iowa State Patrol said in a report. Nelson was wearing a seat belt.

The crash remains under investigation.

Source

Both directions of the interstate were closed for about an hour while officers investigated and cleared the crash scene.

Officials say that the deputies injuries are not life threatening.

The accident occurred in the westbound or downvalley lanes at about 7 a.m. It appeared that the tractor-trailer had jackknifed across the downvalley lanes. Another vehicle that was westbound plowed into the section where the trailer hitches to the tractor. That vehicle was covered with a tarp after emergency crews arrived and attended to at least one person who was injured. That person was taken to Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, but no condition report on the individual was immediately available.

Ambulance and rescue crews from Carbondale and Basalt responded to the scene. A coroner also was summoned. The accident occurred in Garfield County, upvalley from the Highway 133 turnoff to Carbondale. Highway 82 in that general area was icy and snowpacked in spots.

Downvalley traffic was diverted onto Valley Road and old Highway 82 between the main El Jebel stoplight and Catherine Store. Some downvalley traffic was stacked up behind the accident and couldn’t divert around it.

Eastbound or upvalley traffic kept flowing but at a slower pace.

The cause of the accident is under investigation by state troopers

The Pittsburg Post Gazettereports that instructor Bruce Rushton had two students in his cab when he ran into a light post at a restaurant in Bedford Township, PA. Rushton is a driver trainer for C.R. England Inc.

Making matters worse, police say Rushton then fled north on Interstate 99, but was stopped by police after a witness told them about the damaged light post.

Investigators said 27-year-old Officer Thomas J. Soto of Pennsauken was killed when his 2002 Chevy Tahoe crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a Pathmark tractor trailer.

Soto had been a member of the Pennsauken Police Department since July 2006. He had worked with the department as a civilian special officer for about two years before joining the force.

A passenger in Soto’s vehicle, Thomas A. Cruz-Soto of New York, was injured and was being treated at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

The truck driver, Lawrence J. Bochard of Fords, New Jersey, was not hurt.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Michael Carter, 42, stopped at the intersection of U.S. Highway 84 and Louisiana Highway 481 outside of Logansport around 7 p.m.

When he stopped, he overshot the stop line, according to Louisiana state police Troop G reports, and left the front of his 2006 Chevrolet pickup in the intersection.

When Ancul Bland, 44, of Converse, tried to avoid hitting the pickup, the tractor trailer “struck the pickup broadside,” the report states.

Bland was not injured, but Carter was stuck in his truck for several minutes. He remains in LSU Hospital in critical condition.

There was no evidence of impairment and investigators are unclear if Carter had on a seat belt.

Troopers continue to investigate the accident.

At late afternoon Sunday, 36-mph winds blew out of the west, according to a National Weather Service spokesman.

On Saturday, 75-mph gusts were recorded between Colorado City and Walsenburg.

The powerful warm winds littered Interstate 25 with directional signs blown from their posts and flipped semitrailers.

A total of seven single-vehicle accidents slowed traffic between Walsenburg and the New Mexico border, stopping traffic altogether periodically throughout the day.

Three empty semitrailers were blown over in the near-hurricane force winds within a 30-minute period Saturday morning between Colorado City and Walsenburg.

Another semitrailer was blown onto its side in Las Animas County the tractor-trailer’s unidentified driver suffering the only minor injury of the day. Two trucks pulling trailers also were blown off the road. Crews continued to clear the wreckage from the highway Sunday morning.

The 75-mph winds knocked out power here on several streets Saturday, but electrical service was restored later in the day, a dispatcher for San Isabel Electric said on Sunday.

High winds sheared the bricks off a downtown building, piling up on the sidewalk and blocking the entrance to a local business. The sidewalk and part of the road was blocked for most of the day as bricks flew from the building’s facade, shattering as they hit the ground.

An overhang at the Budget Host motel laundromat was ripped from the building as winds continued to rush through the region throughout the afternoon and early evening.

The winds had calmed by 10 p.m. and were followed by heavy storm clouds, which began to gather over the mountains Sunday morning. The storm system was expected to bring significant snowfall to the mountains by Monday; 4 inches were reported in Cuchara Sunday. Two to 4 inches of snow were expected to fall overnight Sunday on La Veta Pass.

There is a 40 percent chance of snow after 11 a.m. today in the Walsenburg-Trinidad area with highs in the mid-40s. Breezy weather, with a south wind around 15 to 20 mph, coming from the west are forecast. The chance of precipitation is 60 percent.

In Pueblo and most of Southern Colorado, today will bring a 40 percent chance of snow and a high temperature of around 45. Locally, gusts of up to 30 mph are possible.