State Senator Thomas J. Herlihy, R-Simsbury, today announced that major legislation aimed to improve truck and driver safety in the wake of last year’s horrific accident on Avon Mountain has unanimously passed the State Senate.   Under the measure crafted by Sen. Herlihy, no trucking company would be allowed to employ or authorize any person to operate a large commercial vehicle without written certification of an on-road skills test, proving that the new hire possesses the skills, capability and fitness to operate such a motor vehicle.

According to Sen. Herlihy, the initiative was in direct response to last summer’s horrific accident at the intersection of Routes 10 and 44 in Avon that left four people dead and dozens injured.  The driver of the dump truck that caused the accident had been hired by American Crushing & Recycling of Bloomfield only two days before the accident.  Upon further investigation it has been alleged that the driver had been fired from a similar tucking position at another company three days earlier because of unreliable work habits and improper operation of one of that company’s vehicles.

“This legislation would require any new employee of a trucking company to pass a comprehensive driving test in the same vehicle that he/she will be operating while on the job,” said Sen. Herlihy.  “While the investigation into the tragic circumstances of this horrific accident is ongoing, making sure a company hires qualified drivers to ensure the public’s safety is something we can do immediately.”       

According to Sen. Herlihy, the bill also allows Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to order any motor carrier with an unsatisfactory safety rating to cease operations until it achieves a satisfactory rating.  He said that motor carriers are subject to both state and federal safety regulations. Among these procedures is a process for assigning a safety rating to the carrier based on a number of factors including accident history and the number of previous safety violations. “We have a responsibility to make sure that trucks traveling on Connecticut’s roads are operating in a safe manner.” said Sen. Herlihy.  “I believe this bill is in the best interests of both the traveling public and the trucking companies as well.”

Sen. Herlihy believes that through these initiatives combined with the recommendations of the Department of Motor Vehicles that were accepted by Governor Rell earlier this month, truck safety in Connecticut would be vastly improved over the regulations that were in place at the time of the accident last year.   Included in those recommendations is the hiring of nine new truck safety inspectors. 

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