Trucker Trouble
If you're like me, you've had some nerve-racking encounters with big rigs on the highway. Now Gregg Jones, Holly Becka, Jennifer LaFleur and Steve McGonigle of The Dallas Morning News tell us we have good reasons to be scared. Their new series, "Road Hazards," details why Texas consistently leads the country in deaths caused by truck accidents. Some of the reasons: trucking companies often put addicts, drunks, felons and people who can't read road signs behind the wheel. But the trucking companies usually avoid consequences when these bad-news drivers cause accidents, the reporters discovered. To report this three-part series, the Morning News crew spent seven months looking at court documents, accident reports and truck inspection records. They also interviewed trucking company workers, government regulators, legal experts and law enforcement officials. I know that in Illinois, reporters helped uncover a licenses-for-bribes scandal that put unfit truck drivers on the road. Has anyone found similar trucker trouble in other states?