O’Connell Joins Fight to Ban Bigger Trucks

Concerned about the dangers of even bigger trucks using Ventura County highways, a local legislator has thrown his support behind a state measure opposing federal efforts to allow triple trailers on California’s roadways.

Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) has requested that he become the co-author of a resolution urging Congress to not approve the use of triple trailers. The resolution has passed the Assembly and should be voted upon by the state Senate later this month, said Gavin Payne, O’Connell’s spokesman.

Congress is considering increasing truck size and weight limits and allowing a rig to pull as many as three trailers.

O’Connell said he opposes increasing current size and weight restrictions because of the risks large vehicles pose on such steep sections of roadway as the Conejo Grade portion of the Ventura Freeway. In addition, dangerous stretches of highway, such as California 126 between Fillmore and the Los Angeles County line, would become even more dangerous, he said.

“We have enough issues with safety on our local highways as it is without facing the threat of triple trailers rumbling down the road,” O’Connell said in a statement. “For months we’ve been striving to make Highway 126 safer and there are tangible results. I shudder to think how our hard-fought safety improvements would suffer if we allow these commercial behemoths to roar along that risky stretch of road.”

A string of deaths on California 126 in recent months has resulted in increased police patrols to make the highway safer.