9 Killed in Mexico by Truck With No Brakes

4/2/07

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The Truckers Report Merchandise

That is particularly disturbing. Would love to know what comes from an investigation of this truck, if there is one.

disturbing yes, but let's not forget that its still an accident and those things happen whether they happen in canada, america, afganistan, or china. a truck accident is just that. let's not use this as fodder for the anti-mexican truckers movement. let's see what if any investigations say about this and if those investigations are made public.

You can be that magnanimous if you want, I'm not going to be. I believe it had every thing to do with faulty and unsafe equipment. I've been to the border zone and seen the garbage that passes for "safe equipment". In the US it would have already been recycled thats how bad it is.

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Exactly.

The "ignore it and it will go away" approach is what got us to the point we are at now. When things like this happen, you can bet I am going to be vocal on it.

Things I would like to know from this investigation would be:

When was this truck last inspected? What was the conclusion of that inspection report as opposed to what the condition of the truck was before this wreck?

yipee.........you've been to the "border zone"..........wowee..........!!

unless either one of us saw that truck first hand you nor i can say for sure it was faulty and/or unsafe equipment.

i say an accident is an accident no matter where it happens, and i'll stand by that. let the investigation take place, and we shall see the results (if the mexican gov. allows such disclosure) when the time comes.

if it were an american driver, what would your honest thoughts be then....??

According to the DOT, that equipment has the same failure rate for DOT inspections as US based equipment.

So if you're going to automatically dismiss old trucks as unsafe, you better do it for every beat up truck doing local duty in every city in every state in the US because there's thousands of them.

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The question is already answered. Look at the tons of threads Cybergal has posted regarding truck accidents with fatalities in this forum. I don't see them jumping the gun on those accidents.

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I'm willing and able to go there too. I've seen the absolute trash beat up trucks running the inner city areas driving by mostly minorities. Trucks that if they ever were inspected by a DOT man would be put out of service before the inspection even began. I've talked to former O/Os that used to also work the same areas before the illegal problem go to be so bad. The reason I say former is because the prices have been slashed so low its impossible to compete and even break even. The reason is the trucks are uninsured, unlicensed, never inspected.........you get the picture. If a wreck or traffic infraction ever happens as long as the driver is able to walk/run, by the time the cops get there the driver is long gone. Buys another $3000 or less junker and is back in business in two days.
I know you won't believe me, but I challenge you to go to any large city and look at the equipment doing the local inner city work. Dump trucks/trailers, belly dump trailers, trash haulers, etc etc etc, look with your eyes open at Chicago, Denver, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Miami, Tampa, LA, etc etc and then report back. You'll see what I mean.


I am not saying that old trucks by themselves are unsafe. I've drove old trucks that had a lot of work done to them to keep them up.

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You are right.

It doesn't matter where you are, there are unsafe trucks on the road all over.

A few months ago here in Toronto, a truck's brakes failed and it crashed into a condo apartment building. So the reporter decided to follow up and do some investigating into the company and found that the majority of their trucks were not up to par with safety regulations. Infact, the drivers were driving trucks where the plates were expired. If a company is not going to renew it's license plates, you better believe they are not up to par with safety standards!

The sad thing is, many of these companies will shut down, claim brankruptcy and start up under a new name.