Daniel Pinna
UNSAFE VEHICLES SHOULD BE KEPT OFF PUBLIC ROADS
The following article was written on Tuesday December 4th, 1951 in the Sacramento Bee:
One day last July a highway patrolman issued a warning to the driver of an oil tanker to have its brakes fixed.
Obviously if the brakes were bad enough to justify a warning from the patrol, they were so bad the truck should have been kept off the public highways until they were repaired.
But the trucker was permitted to proceed. A few hours later the tanker rammed into an automobile near Santa Barbara, wiping out a whole family of four.
The cause of the accident as reported by the highway patrol was the failure of the truck's brakes.
This evidence was brought out in a hearing before the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco on the operations of trucks belonging to the John W. Doudell Trucking Company of San Jose.
Highway patrol officers not only testified the tanker involved in the Santa Barbara crash had defective brakes but they also stated that of 10 pieces of equipment belonging to the Doudell Company which were inspected by the patrol six had the same fault.
Fortunately the record does not show that any of the company's other trucks was involved in a highway mishap.
Why are trucks, or for that matter any vehicles, allowed to operate on the public highways with defective brakes or with defective equipment of any kind which endangers the lives of other motorists?
The many instances of heavy trucks going out of control on long mountain grades suggest that other trucks than those owned by the San Jose firm are operating on the public highways without proper brakes.
A truck out of control on a mountain grade is as dangerous as a projectile, or more so. And anyone shooting a 75mm shell down a main highway would be locked up. No more leniency should be shown a truck driver or the company which hires him.
It is highly dangerous and absurd that a truck or car should be allowed to travel the highways after a warning of defective equipment has been issued by a highway patrolman.
If the law is deficient in giving powers to officers to keep such vehicles off the public highways where they are a menace to human life, the law should be overhauled.
If the law is construed to give such powers, the patrol ought to see that they are exercised.
The following was posted in the Madera Tribune, on August 24th 1951:
TRUCK DAMAGED IN HIGHWAY FIRE
A blaze in a large truck and trailer resulted in $15,120 damage on the Pacheco Pass highway near Red Top ranch yesterday afternoon, the Division of Forestry reported today.
The truck, owned by John Doudell, San Jose, and driven by Oral George, was en route to San Jose when a flat tire on the trailer bed started a blaze in the cargo of 12 bundles of tin weighing 3,600 pounds each, the report said.
One day last July a highway patrolman issued a warning to the driver of an oil tanker to have its brakes fixed.
Obviously if the brakes were bad enough to justify a warning from the patrol, they were so bad the truck should have been kept off the public highways until they were repaired.
But the trucker was permitted to proceed. A few hours later the tanker rammed into an automobile near Santa Barbara, wiping out a whole family of four.
The cause of the accident as reported by the highway patrol was the failure of the truck's brakes.
This evidence was brought out in a hearing before the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco on the operations of trucks belonging to the John W. Doudell Trucking Company of San Jose.
Highway patrol officers not only testified the tanker involved in the Santa Barbara crash had defective brakes but they also stated that of 10 pieces of equipment belonging to the Doudell Company which were inspected by the patrol six had the same fault.
Fortunately the record does not show that any of the company's other trucks was involved in a highway mishap.
Why are trucks, or for that matter any vehicles, allowed to operate on the public highways with defective brakes or with defective equipment of any kind which endangers the lives of other motorists?
The many instances of heavy trucks going out of control on long mountain grades suggest that other trucks than those owned by the San Jose firm are operating on the public highways without proper brakes.
A truck out of control on a mountain grade is as dangerous as a projectile, or more so. And anyone shooting a 75mm shell down a main highway would be locked up. No more leniency should be shown a truck driver or the company which hires him.
It is highly dangerous and absurd that a truck or car should be allowed to travel the highways after a warning of defective equipment has been issued by a highway patrolman.
If the law is deficient in giving powers to officers to keep such vehicles off the public highways where they are a menace to human life, the law should be overhauled.
If the law is construed to give such powers, the patrol ought to see that they are exercised.
The following was posted in the Madera Tribune, on August 24th 1951:
TRUCK DAMAGED IN HIGHWAY FIRE
A blaze in a large truck and trailer resulted in $15,120 damage on the Pacheco Pass highway near Red Top ranch yesterday afternoon, the Division of Forestry reported today.
The truck, owned by John Doudell, San Jose, and driven by Oral George, was en route to San Jose when a flat tire on the trailer bed started a blaze in the cargo of 12 bundles of tin weighing 3,600 pounds each, the report said.
