Category: Road

024 is the year many companies are promising to place tractor-trailers on Texas highways without a driver in the cab. One major route will be along I-45 between Dallas and Houston. Attorney Amy Witherite, an expert in trucking safety, warns that these 80,000-pound vehicles may pose a special danger to first responders.

According to the American Automobile Association, “every year about 23 roadside workers and first responders (one every two weeks) loses their life at the roadside and hundreds more are injured while tending to disabled vehicles.”

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a Tesla did not respond correctly when a fire apparatus and police cruiser with emergency lights activated were used to block an accident scene in California.

Using a fire engine to protect first responders at accident scenes is a widespread practice. According to the NTSB, “when the vehicle ahead of the Tesla changed lanes to the right to go around the fire truck, the Tesla remained in the HOV lane, accelerated, and struck the rear of the fire truck at a recorded speed of about thirty-one mph.”

The NTSB noted, “the probable cause of the Culver City, California, rear-end crash was the Tesla driver’s lack of response to the stationary fire truck in his travel lane, due to inattention and overreliance on the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance system.”

“Imagine the tremendous damage an 80,000-pound autonomous truck would have caused in this same situation,” said Witherite. “Automation is important and can make driving much safer, but it is fair to ask whether it is safe to place fully automated trucks on the road at this time.”

California is not the only state struggling with this issue. According to the Austin Monitor, “an internal reporting system used by Austin firefighters and police describes Cruise cars coming within inches of parked fire trucks, ignoring police directing traffic and – in one instance – almost cutting off an ambulance flashing its lights on the way to Sixth Street. On other occasions, firefighters wrote, Cruise employees struggled to move their own disabled vehicles out of the way of traffic.”

The results of AAA’s annual automated vehicle survey show that while there is still a high level of interest in partially automated vehicle technology, attitudes toward fully self-driving vehicles have become increasingly apprehensive. This year there was a major increase in drivers who are afraid, rising to 68% as compared to 55% in 2022. This is a 13% jump from last year’s survey and the biggest increase since 2020.

“We owe it to those who put their lives on the line to protect ours to make sure that fully automated vehicles don’t increase the already high level of risk associated with working accident scenes on our state’s highways,” says Witherite.

Flock Freight, the only FreightTech company creating a smarter, more sustainable supply chain by pooling freight at scale, today announced that its guaranteed, terminal-free shared truckload solution, FlockDirect, has been named a winner in the transportation category of the 2024 BIG Innovation Awards presented by the Business Intelligence Group.

FlockDirect eliminates the hassles of the hub-and-spoke freight shipping model using patented technology that matches locations, schedules, and compatible shipments, finding the best options to pool freight among trillions of possible combinations. Shipments stay safe and in a single truck, driven by a single driver, all the way to their destination enabling shippers to only pay for the space they need and enabling carriers to earn more from every linear foot of capacity — all while slashing carbon emissions by up to 40% compared to traditional shipping methods.

“In 2023, we delivered on our strategy of integrating A.I. across our tech stack, fusing machine learning with operations research. As a result, in 2023 Flock pooled over half a billion pounds of freight – a 7x increase since 2020,” said Lu Saenz, Chief Technology Officer at Flock Freight. “Shippers are leveraging FlockDirect to build efficiencies into their supply chain logistics, leading to significant cost savings and over 46 thousand metric tons of CO2e avoided – a staggering 13x increase since 2020. We’re now on track to enable the pooling of trillions of pounds of freight in shared truckloads each year, further reducing the sizable carbon footprint of the logistics and transportation sectors.”

“Innovation is driving our society,” said Maria Jimenez, chief nominations officer of the Business Intelligence Group. “We are thrilled to be honoring Flock Freight as they are leading by example and improving the lives of so many.”

Organizations from across the globe submitted their recent innovations for consideration in the BIG Innovation Awards. Nominations were then judged by a select group of business leaders and executives who volunteer their time and expertise to score submissions.

A driver crashed a gray sport utility vehicle with a Virginia license plate into one of the exterior gates near the White House around 6 p.m. Monday, January 8. The driver was taken into custody according to Secret Service. The agency says it is still conducting an investigation into whether or not the crash was intentional.

“We can definitively say that there’s no risk to the complex or the adjacent neighborhood, and the investigation into his motivations continue,” Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for the Secret Service, said in a statement. President Biden was not at the White House during the occurence.

The car stopped before a security checkpoint at the perimeter of the White House complex. No damage was visible, but the photos did not show the front of the car.

The Washington fire department responded to the area and said the scene was cleared by 7pm. Guglielmi said on X (Twitter) shortly after 7:30 p.m. that the vehicle had been cleared by local police and that the streets around the White House that had been closed to traffic would be reopened.

Police deployed an armored vehicle to pry open the cabin of a truck on a highway in Texas, after the driver refused to stop or get out of the cab.

Officers had used spike strips to stop the vehicle, police said, but the driver still refused to get out of the vehicle.

After using an armored battering ram to pry open the cabin of the 18-wheeler the officers sent a police dog in to subdue the man. Then they were able to arrest the driver following an hours-long standoff on Wednesday, December 27.

Police stopped the truck, because it was moving slowly and erratically but the driver refused to exit the vehicle. They used a vehicle known as rook, to tear through the cabin’s window and passenger side door and used a police dog and gas canisters to subdue the driver. Aerial footage showed a SWAT team dragging the driver out of the cabin.

Drivers who are enrolled in the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) program will have a third option for entering the U.S. from Mexico in El Paso and Juarez area. U.S. and Mexican officials will initiate SENTRI service at the Paso Del Norte (PDN) international crossing at 8a.m., Dec. 1.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection collaborated for months with their Mexican counterparts to expand the SENTRI service to the downtown crossing. The easternmost lane of the international bridge is now segregated from regular traffic. At least one and as many as four of the easternmost inspection booths at the PDN facility will be designated for SENTRI use depending upon demand. Electronic signage located above the inspection booths will direct SENTRI users.

“The need for additional SENTRI service has been demonstrated by the growing popularity of this trusted traveler program, especially in the downtown area,” said CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations Hector Mancha. “It is important to note that enrollment in SENTRI does not offer a free pass to the U.S. CBP officers may still conduct exams to verify that SENTRI users are not violating any laws upon their arrival.”

During fiscal year 2021, just over one million vehicles were processed at the Stanton international crossing SENTRI lane. During fiscal year 2023 the number exceeded 1.5 million. Enrollments in trusted traveler programs in the El Paso area are also increasing. In fiscal year 2021 there were approximately 82,000 people enrolled in the program. In fiscal year 2023, the number has now exceeded 100,000.

The infrastructure constraints of the Stanton SENTRI lanes and the proximity of the Paso Del Norte crossing supported the expansion of SENTRI to further CBP’s mission priorities of facilitating lawful travel and continued growth in trusted traveler programs.

Commonly known as the Dedicated Commuter Lane (DCL) in the EL Paso area, the popular DCL lanes were first introduced at the Stanton international crossing in 1999. DCL service was then established at the Ysleta port of entry several years later. It is also available for pedestrian users of the PDN crossing.

A vehicle exploded Wednesday, November 22 at the Niagara Falls International Rainbow Bridge border crossing between the United States and Canada. This was confirmed by two American law enforcement officials with knowledge of the matter. The two people in the car died and a Border Patrol officer was injured.

The cause of the explosion, exact location and direction the car was traveling, were not immediately known. Video from an eyewitness at the scene shows an inspection booth at the bridge with smoke billowing out of the top and debris scattered about.

All four bridges between Canada and the United States in the Niagara area were closed, including the Rainbow Bridge, Peace Bridge, Lewiston-Queenston Bridge and Whirlpool Bridge, according to Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s public safety minister.

“This is a rapidly changing situation,” LeBlanc said at a press conference. “All measures are being taken to ensure that people will be safe.”

The vehicle was traveling at high speed. It careened about 10 feet into the air, according to one of the American law enforcement officers. No explosive devices were immediately found in the wreckage, the official said. The F.B.I.’s Buffalo field office said in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) that the agency was coordinating with local, state and federal law enforcement. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said the New York State Police were working with the F.B.I. to monitor all points of entry to the state.

Airports and railway facilities in the area have increased security. There are also additional explosive detective dogs and police patrols, and additional screening is being deployed at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, according to a spokesman with New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office.

The FBI is investigating.

Forty-one workers were trapped in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India and have been there for 10 days so far. The number of trapped workers was revised up from 40 to 41, according to Anshu Manish, a director at the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, an agencies overseeing the rescue.

A new drilling machine arrived on site to replace a damaged one to help with the extrication. Reports say the exceptionally hard rock formation in the area coupled with the clearing of debris damaged the original machine and paused rescue efforts after several days.

Shown at right is an image of some of the trapped workers.