California committee scraps truck legislation

Aug 29, 2001 12:00 PM

A state legislative committee scrapped a bill that would have allowed California’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to beef up truck travel restrictions and truck crash data gathering and give it more ticketing powers. The California Assembly Transportation Committee let bill SB 636, authored by Senator Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) die without coming before the state legislature for a vote.

The bill would have allowed Caltrans to add new truck provisions to its powers. It would have allowed the agency to update a 1989 study of the California State Highway System and erect regulatory signs, prohibiting certain length trucks from traveling certain narrow stretches of those roads.

It also would have given the California Highway Patrol the responsibility of gathering more detailed crash factors and the authority to enforce the new regulations by ticketing and fines. The bill would have also given trucking companies what was termed “knowledge and incentive” to avoid certain routes.