The coverage of June 18’s fatal collision between a South Shore commuter train and a double-trailer open-flatbed truck neglected the two major safety issues in that case.
First, open-flatbed trucks already have caused numerous accidents, many of them fatal, when steel coils and other large, heavy objects fell off the flatbed, striking passenger automobiles and their drivers. How many more people have to die before we decide open flatbeds are too dangerous to share the roads with ordinary cars and drivers?
Second, the truck got trapped on the railroad tracks because it had a double trailer and was therefore too long to clear the tracks. Currently, the trucking industry is trying to persuade the Illinois regulators to allow triple-trailer trucks on our roads. Enough already.
