in World News U.S. Trucking Advocate: Foreign Drivers Causing Fatal Accidents, ‘Slashing Truckers’ Income, Pushing Companies out of Business’
by Neil Munro
A highway disaster in Texas has exposed the growing number of dangerous foreign truck drivers on U.S. roads, and advocates are using a legislative debate in Arkansas to jump-start federal changes to loopholed trucking regulations.
“We’re trying to make a statement so that the feds will do something,” said Shannon Everett, a cofounder of American Truckers United. The foreign truck drivers — including many illegals — are killing American drivers, slashing truckers’ income, and pushing companies out of business,” he told Breitbart News.
Freight Waves described the March 13 Texas disaster when a truck slammed into the back of a traffic jam:
A man has been arrested as authorities continue to investigate the cause of a crash that killed five people Thursday on Interstate 35 in Austin, Texas.
Authorities said 17 vehicles were involved, including a tractor-trailer hauling goods for Amazon, in the accident that happened around 11:30 p.m. in the southbound lanes of I-35. Five people were pronounced dead on the scene, including a child and an infant. Eleven others were taken to hospitals.
Solomun Weldekeal Araya, 37, the Dallas-based driver of the tractor-trailer, was arrested Friday by the Austin Police Department and charged with five counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault.
Fox7Austin.com reported:
The driver was detained and identified as Solomun Weldekeal Araya. The affidavit says he spoke mostly Tigrinya, a language spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, but also understood and spoke English.
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A field sobriety test showed he could not keep his balance or focus on instructions, and that he was swaying from side to side and front to back. Officers also noticed eyelid tremors and determined based on the test results that, due to a drug or controlled substance, he did not have the normal use of his mental and physical faculties to safely operate a motor vehicle.
Foreign truck drivers are pushing up the highway accident rate and pushing Americans out of jobs and well-paying truck routes, Everett said. The sector is always eager for more new drivers because it loses so many overworked and underpaid Americans each year, he said.