Parents’ group honors trucking law advocates

PORTLAND – Investigators and prosecutors were honored Wednesday for their aggressive enforcement of safe trucking laws by a national highway safety organization that had its roots in a tragedy in Maine.

The presentations were made by Parents Against Tired Truckers, which has sought stiffer laws and criminal prosecutions to keep drivers of heavy trucks from threatening public safety by spending long hours behind the wheel.

Among those honored by PATT were prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the York County District Attorney’s Office and investigators from the Maine State Police and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Daphne Izer of Lisbon, who founded PATT after her son and three other teen-agers were killed in a 1993 crash in Falmouth that involved a fatigued trucker, said an average of 13 people die each day in heavy truck crashes across the country.

She said that while criminal prosecutions in such cases are rare, that is not the case in Maine.

In 2000, Michael Rodgers of Illinois was sentenced to a year in prison and barred from future truck driving after he fell asleep while driving his 80,000-pound rig, causing a crash that killed a 52-year-old man.

“A strong message is being sent: Maine will not tolerate unsafe practices,” said Izer, whose organization now has chapters in 26 states.

PATT co-chairman Russ Swift of Wales, who lost a son in a 1993 crash in Nevada involving a tired trucker, applauded recent efforts by Maine law enforcement personnel to successfully prosecute unsafe elements of the trucking industry.

Sentences handed down to the trucking companies ranged from fines and probation to jail time, and one company ceased operations.

Swift and Izer noted that no one was ever prosecuted or punished for the crashes that killed their sons. But they agreed that the diligence and determination of law enforcement officials in Maine makes it more likely today that a trucker who caused such an accident within the state would face punishment.