Connecticut Passes Snow-Removal Law

You don't need heaters on the trailers, as a silicone based coating would suffice to keep ice from sticking.

Fiberglass roofs are also pretty good shedding ice once they start moving or (idling), the construction and rounded design works well too.

Again, the co's with the pockets will already have addressed this, it's the desperado co's and companies from other "southward" countries?

The ones that will cause problems.

 

On January 24, 2011, 31 State Trucking Associations wrote to FMCSA and NHTSA, asking them to work with truckers and others to address the safety issues associated with snow and ice blowing off motor vehicles.

I am new to this forum. I tried to attach a link to an article in the Bridgeport Post on this issue but was told that links are not allowed. Transport Topics will have an article soon.

 

If you have a link that pertains, PM a MOD and they will post it for you.

Or just post like crazy until you have enough posts.

 

I don't know at the times I've been in freezing rain and had a build up on my trailer and tractor while moving only to see the whole mess break loose and sail off my trailer and cover the lane and any thing behind me.

It never failed to scare me witless but, things like that happen and the driver has no control over it. Anybody have a solution to this? I know the dangers to those driving behind us but,what can be done to keep this from happening?

 

There are legitimate safety concerns about sheets of ice blowing off trucks and smashing windshields or injuring occupants of following vehicles. The government has not done any research on this matter. In fact it was the trucking industry, through the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), which conducted the first effort to study this issue, now shortened to the acronym SNICE. ATRI concluded, after an extensive effort to document existing technology designed to remove SNICE, that there is no effective nor reliable way to deal with the removal of SNICE without seriously endangering the safety of drivers.

Every time snow or ice blows off the top of trucks on highways, it scares every driver that witnesses it and reinforces an impression that the trucking industry recklessly shirks it's responsibility to remove the SNICE. The fact that we cannot remove the SNICE safely does not give us the right to either endanger the public or ignore the problem. This is a safety issue and we are a safety obsessed industry.

The general public has begun to push back through the adoption of state legislation which will impose fines on operators of motor vehicles which have SNICE on them. It was inevitable that it would happen and frankly a political lay-up for legislators.

Last week, 31 state trucking associations took action to deal with SNICE. They wrote a letter to the administrators of Federal Motor Carrier Administration and National Highway Safety Administration and asked those agencies to begin the process which could result in a federal rule requiring automobile, truck and trailer manufacturers to incorporate technology in their products which will prohibit or remove the accumulation of SNICE.

This process is how rear under-ride protection and conspicuity reflectors were ordered. It may result in more expensive trucks but that is a price that the trucking industry should be willing to pay for the safety improvements that dealing with SNICE will provide.

 

I don't know what PM a MOD means.

 

Just find one (mastertech for example), click on their name to view profile. Their is an option for a private messeage. Click on it and Voila!! Hope this helps ya.

 

I know several years ago PA tried to pass a similar law about snow and ice removal after a 4 wheel driver was implaled and killed by a sheet of ice that flew off the top of a trailer. The trucking lobbiest however were able to get it defeated.

It seems that something as simple as an overhead scraper followed by a de-icing solution, similar to the ones airlines use, could be installed at terminals and TS's and trucks could simply drive under it to scrape off the trailer roof. The scraping arm could be adjustable to match the varying heights of trailers.

That being said, CT and any state that enacts a similar should have some kind of snow removal devices at the port of entry stations so the problem can be dealt with as soon as the trucks enter their state.

I know the reason the measure falled in PA was because it would cause a greater danger to truckers to have to climb on their trailers to clear snow than the potential danger it would pose to motorist avoiding flying ice. A network of snow/ice removal systems would have to put in place to make the new law effective. The state had no intention to take on the costs and the private sector saw no profit in building a network so the bill failed.

 

The bills that have passed did so on the premise that "someone" would build the snow and ice removal stations. So far, nobody has. Big surprise. That's still a problem easily solved by not going to those idiotic states.