91ÊÓƵ

Three witnesses to the deadly Amtrak crash have given possibly conflicting statements about when warning signals and crossing gates activated at the crossing, a federal official said Monday.

Responding to last week’s collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a tractor trailer, the Senate Surface Transportation Subcommittee will hold a hearing March 25 on grade crossing safety.

Lack of votes for a plan to impose an immediate 4-cent-a-gallon increase on diesel fuel prompted its sponsor to start talking compromise with supporters of another plan to phase in the higher taxes.

The president of American Trucking Associations was trying to sell his vision for integration with The Maintenance Council at its annual conference.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. selected 5 finalists from 24 state and provincial semifinalists, one of whom will be named Highway Hero for 1998.

American Trucking Associations last week urged the U.S. Supreme Court to declare a Washington state truck tax unconstitutional.

Knight Transportation bought Action Delivery Service of Corsicana, Texas, and its affiliated company, Action Warehouse Services.

Skynet Holdings of Los Angeles agreed to buy Nevada Fleet Management, a Las Vegas-based courier that provides air and ground delivery services to Nevada, Washington and Oregon under the name Fleet Delivery Service.

The Amtrak accident at Bourbonnais, Ill., that killed at least 11 people and injured scores of others last week has refocused the attention of both the trucking and railroad industries on one of their most difficult common safety problems: grade crossings.

A minority of reckless truck drivers is giving the rest of the industry a bad name. To fight back, the groups are lending support to legislation to crack down on unsafe truckers.