The Safe American Roads Act of 2007 would halt Mexico-to-U.S. trucking plan

The history of American roadways is a tale of gradually improving safety. Through decades of innovation, our country has transformed an inherently risky act — strapping a human body into several tons of metal and accelerating to high speed — into a safe and familiar foundation of modern society.

Today, careful road maintenance promotes safe driving conditions, seatbelts and airbags protect drivers in collisions, and wise public policy ensures that every driver on the road is licensed, knowledgeable, and safe. The result? The rate of fatalities on American roadways has dropped dramatically, from 5.98 fatalities per hundred million vehicle-miles in 1957 to just 1.51 in 2002. Today’s drivers are four times less likely to die in a traffic accident than drivers of 50 years ago.

But a proposal by the Department of Transportation (DOT) may soon put the brakes on this long journey toward road safety. The DOT has unveiled a pilot program that would permit poorly regulated Mexican traffic to enter American highways. In its present form, their plan exhibits reckless disregard for America’s road safety — not to mention our border security and economic interests.

Under current law, trucks registered in Mexico can drive only within narrow border zones in the United States before their cargoes are transferred to an American vehicle. This system not only protects U.S. highways from unsafe Mexican traffic, but prevents drug smuggling and illegal immigration, and it safeguards American transportation jobs.

But the DOT intends to halt this sensible system. Under its pilot program, Mexico-domiciled trucks could penetrate far into the American heartland. The traditional safety standards required for vehicles on American roads — such as frequent safety inspections, limits on the number of hours driven in a day, drug testing, and criminal background checks for drivers hauling hazardous materials — either would not apply or would be weakly enforced.

If the DOT pilot program proceeds as planned, drivers in Kansas and across the United States will soon share their roads with unsafe Mexican trucks. The flood of foreign traffic will inevitably result in collisions, injuries, and even fatalities.

As concerning as these impacts on our highway safety may be, they are not the only worrisome implications of the DOT’s proposal. By weakening America’s border with Mexico, the pilot program invites illegal immigration and smuggling — even as the security of our southern border is a subject of growing national importance. And by permitting low-paid and poorly trained Mexican drivers to replace American truckers, the DOT proposal undermines the traditional economic strength of our transportation sector.

Fortunately, Congress can rein in the Department of Transportation. Although NAFTA prevents us from prohibiting cross-border commercial traffic entirely, we can at least ensure that any foreign trucking program adheres to the strictest standards of safety and accountability.

I recently introduced H.R. 1773, the Safe American Roads Act of 2007, which takes several sensible steps to promote highway safety. As amended by Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the bill:

•Requires the DOT cross-border pilot program to comply with all 22 requirements of the fiscal-year 2002 Department of Transportation Appropriations Act and all requirements set forth under the Transportation Equity Act for the  21st Century relating to pilot programs;

•Requires the DOT, prior to initiation of the pilot program, to provide notice and opportunity for public comment on the details of the program, including the measures in place to protect the health and safety of the public, enforcement measures, penalties for non-compliance, and safety metrics used to evaluate the program;

•Restricts the timeframe for a pilot program and requires termination no later than three years after enactment of the bill. The program can be terminated at any point during the three years if the secretary of transportation does not comply with all provisions within the act;

•Creates an independent review panel to monitor and evaluate the pilot program after its launch;

•Requires an inspector general review of the pilot program to determine whether Mexico-domiciled motor carriers participating in the pilot program are in full compliance with U.S. motor carrier safety laws and a report to Congress within 90 days of completion of the pilot program; and

•Requires the DOT to submit a report to Congress on the results of the pilot program within 60 days of completion of the pilot program.

My bill unanimously passed the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, and I am grateful for the leadership of Chairman DeFazio and Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) in advancing this important legislation.

I hope that the full House of Representatives will consider my bill soon and pass it with broad, bipartisan support. If Congress acts swiftly and decisively, we can help ensure that the highways of tomorrow are even safer than the roads we drive today.

Boyda is a member of the Armed Services and Agriculture committees.

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