A woman has been charged with intoxicated manslaughter for a collision that decapitated a trucker in Texas last month. Gina Wilhoit struck trucker Hector Martinez as he was loading equipment onto his trailer off of Interstate 45 near FM 1960 in Houston, Texas back on April 20th. ABC 13 reports that Martinez was parked in ...more
photovs/Getty Images Legislation designed to expand parking facilities for truck drivers was easily advanced by the transportation panel in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act gained voice-vote approval during its consideration before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on May 23. The panel met to advance various bills meant to expedite ...more
Image Would you buy a new car without airbags? The fact is, you can’t. Since 1998, airbags have been standard safety equipment in passenger cars. And the reason is simple. They save lives. Yet for Class 8 trucks, they are still considered “an option.” In order for truck drivers to have frontal and side roll ...more
Jamestown Engine Plant by Cummins Inc. LAKEWOOD, N.Y. — Engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. is readying a $452 million investment in its 1 million-square-foot Jamestown Engine Plant to produce a fuel-agnostic internal combustion engine platform that the company says will offer a range of lower-carbon fuel types, including natural gas. “Our fuel-agnostic platform builds on decades of ...more
Lytx developed the report using data from the more than 2.1 million drivers on its platform globally. (Lytx) Fleets around the world experienced a 16% year-over-year decline in idling time in 2022, according to customer data from video telematics company Lytx. The 2023 State of the Data Report released May 23 noted the reduction in ...more
A Microvast battery pack and cell (Patrick Pleul/picture alliance/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has canceled plans to award a $200 million grant to a U.S. battery manufacturer amid criticism from Republican lawmakers over the company’s alleged ties to China. Texas-based Microvast was one of 20 companies to win preliminary grants totaling $2.8 billion ...more
Alfa Romeo's plug-in hybrid, the 2024 Tonale, on a street in Milan, Italy. (Henry Payne/The Detroit News via Tribune Content Agency) MILAN — European governments have historically been more aggressive than the United States in regulating fuel consumption with high gas taxes, favorable diesel tax breaks and escalating penalties on nonelectric automobiles. That is about ...more
North Carolina Department of Transportation Design work is progressing on a project to convert the aging Alligator River Bridge from a two-lane swing to a fixed span bridge in a critical freight corridor on U.S. Route 64 in North Carolina. The $226.3 million project, partially funded through a recent $110 million bipartisan infrastructure mega federal ...more
A train sits at a Union Pacific terminal in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press) OMAHA, Neb. — Engineers who operate trains for Union Pacific will soon have much more predictable schedules allowing them to plan when they are going to be off, a change that addresses one of the key quality-of-life concerns that pushed the ...more
Traffic on a California highway. Democrats defended EPA’s rule as a necessary public health measure. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images and Tribune Content Agency) WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted 221-203 on May 23, mostly along party lines, to overturn an Environmental Protection Agency rule to reduce smog- and soot-forming emissions from heavy trucks. ...more
