Newtown Woman’s Club, GFWC, Joins Coalition Against Bigger Trucks

The Newtown Woman’s Club, GFWC, Inc will participate, in conjunction with the General Federation of Woman’s Clubs (GFWC), in a grass roots campaign to prevent larger, more dangerous trucks on highways. To do this, the club will support a letter writing/email campaign in support of HR 3132 to congressional representatives.

The GFWC is the largest and oldest women’s volunteer services organization in the world. For the last 20 years, GFWC has joined with Coalition Against Bigger Trucks (CABT) to freeze truck length and weight on the National Highway System.

Currently, the trucking industry wants to create a corridor from Canada to Mexico using interstate highways. To increase profits, the industry wants to add a third trailer to the tandem trucks already in use on the highways, which raises serious safety, infrastructure, and environments concerns.

According to CABT, the sway on the third trailer, when the truck is braking, is four to six feet on a clear, windless day with dry roads. CABT believes fatalities involving these larger trucks would increase by ten percent.

Currently, 80,000 pounds is the limit for trucks. The trucking industry wants to raise this limit to 100,000 pounds. CABT opposed this increase, saying existing roads and bridges cannot sustain the heavier trucks and it will be the taxpayer who will pay for road repairs and maintaining the highways.