Court hears challenge to Mexican truck program
Mexican rigs, sometimes with hundreds of safety violations, are headed your way, according to those who are challenging the legality of a Bush administration program to let those trucks, and their drivers, roam the U.S.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments in a pair of lawsuits over the administration program that is supposed to be "testing" the procedures that eventually could be used to let thousands of Mexican rigs cruise U.S. roads.
The cases have been brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and a coalition of the Sierra Club, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Public Citizen.
"It makes no sense that while safety and security laws are continually being ratcheted up on U.S.-based drivers and companies, the DOT wants to allow their Mexico-based counterparts to get by with lower standards," Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA, said.
His organization is in court over the Bush program because it alleges the Mexican-based carriers are not meeting U.S. rules and regulations regarding safety.
"Ever since we filed our original legal challenge last September, our attorneys have been chomping at the bit for this day," he said. "We are confident that the law is on our side."
OOIDA is challenging the Department of Transportation claims that drug and alcohol testing programs, medical qualifications standards and commercial driver's license demands for truck drivers in Mexico are "equivalent" to those for U.S. drivers.
Rick Craig, the organization's director of regulatory affairs, has said he's observed Mexican motor carriers with violations that, for a U.S. carrier, would have prompted an order to get off the road.
Catherine O'Mara, a paralegal from the Cullen Law Firm of Washington, D.C., has compiled the safety inspection reports on the Mexico-based motor carriers and a summary of selected SafeStat Data that really shines a light on Craig's assertion.
Her work showed that in the span of one year, Sept. 21, 2006, to Sept. 21, 2007, four of the Mexican companies participating in the Bush administration's test trucking program collected more than 1,700 safety violations.
One company, she noted, was Trinity Industries de Mexico, which was cited more than 1,100 times, averaging 112 violations per truck.
A poster urging the firing of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on display at the Navy Yard Metro stop near the DOT building in Washington, D.C.
The Teamsters, which argued a separate legal challenge to the program on related issues, have taken the issue one step further, launching a campaign to encourage the firing of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, on whose watch the program has been developed.
WND reported earlier the Bush administration decided to ignore a provision passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush as part of the 2008 omnibus spending bill that was intended to remove funding from the 2008 DOT appropriations bill for the Mexican truck demonstration project.
"It's a disgrace that Mary Peters is still in office," said Teamsters General President James Hoffa. "She has broken the law and defied the will of the American people by exposing them to dangerous trucks from Mexico."
Spencer told WND that while the 9th Circuit is expected to rule later, he was encouraged by the comments and questions. He said the courtroom heard interrogations about why the government ignored the intent of Congress in cancelling funding for the program, and how can safety standards be fully evaluated if there is no documentation available for them.
The judges wanted to know, he said, how the Mexican testing programs came to be considered the equivalent of U.S. programs, and where such documentation could be found.
"From our perspective, it really isn't a difficult decision," he told WND. "It's pretty clear based on the court record and the previous decisions actually made by the U.S. Supreme Court that agency is not authorized [to continue the program]."
The Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project has substituted compliance with Mexican rules for meeting the demands of U.S. rules
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