Truck safety push unites police, labor and crash survivors

The pictures were lovely: portraits of parents, a couple on their wedding day, children, entire families. The stories were gut-wrenching. All those in the photos were dead, killed in crashes with large trucks.

As family members stood behind a lectern in a Senate hearing room earlier this month, holding their memories, they were united by their losses and their resolve to improve truck safety, particularly to crack down on overworked truck drivers who easily skirt federal hours-of-service rules by falsifying their driving logs.

Ron Wood held up photos of those he'd lost -- his mother, his sister and three nephews -- in a horrific 2004 accident, caused by a sleepy truck driver in Sherman, that killed 10 people.

The 18-wheeler crossed the median on a highway 60 miles north of Dallas and struck two oncoming cars, burning the SUV with Wood's relatives in it beyond recognition.
It was that crash that propelled Fort Worth police officer Robert Mills to get actively involved in commercial vehicle enforcement and to be an activist for truck safety. Full Story....