91ÊÓƵ

When federal regulators pay a visit to the companies they watch over, they often have an idea of what they’re looking for.

Developing a new safety regulation is often difficult to accomplish, if for no other reason than many steps are required and many people have to be consulted, including those who will feel the rule’s impact.

Most insurance companies rely on the number and cost of accidents to set rates for trucking companies, but some question that criteria as an adequate measure of safety.

When trucking was deregulated almost two decades ago, the traditional barriers to entering the business came crashing to the ground. For better or worse, anyone could buy a truck and start hauling freight for a living.

The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board had a few choice words criticizing the slow pace the nation has taken in adopting proven technologies to make trucks safer.

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold public hearings Sept. 13 to 15 in Chicago to analyze the March crash involving an Amtrak passenger train and a steel-laden tractor-trailer that occurred in Bourbonnais, Ill.

This afternoon's headlines: New Jersey makes truck ban permanent; NationsWay bankruptcy auction nets millions; and DaimlerChrysler still eyeing Nissan Diesel.

The number of people who died in transportation accidents in the United States dropped 1.7% in 1998, according to a report released by the National Transportation Safety Board.

In the news this morning: Narrower trucks could be added to N.J. ban; Teamsters renew criticism of Mexican operators in U.S.; and Maine probes trucking company over driver's firing.

After a first day of emotional testimony, federal investigators say a hearing into the deadly collision between an Amtrak train and truck may shed little light on the cause of the crash.