World Trade Center Move

World Trade Center Steel Moves                                              by Dana Bibb

Monday, September 28 was a momentous day in Mercer’s history. Twenty five trucks were loaded with steel beams from the fallen World Trade Centers. The trucks departed Tuesday morning with police escorts, in convoy, from Maryland to hangar 17 at the JFK airport in New York City. Upon arrival at JFK, the trucks were staged to stay the night and unloaded on Wednesday. These beams will be parts of 9/11 memorials and distributed to museums worldwide. All twenty five trucks were Mercer trucks.

Employees that had worked with these beams for the past several years, examining and testing them, lined the drive, waving and crying as they left. A first grade class was brought out to witness the event.

Roads were closed and the top tier of the George Washington Bridge was shut down and cleared to give them safe passage.

One solemn moment occurred when they entered Delaware. A firetruck was pulled over to the side of the road and had displayed the American flag over it’s side. Five firemen were standing on top, saluting as our trucks went by.

I would personally like to thank each of our contractors that participated in this event. They spent a lot of time cleaning and polishing their trucks, some shutting down ahead of time to get ready. These loads were a labor of love since they only paid each truck $500.

My heartfelt apprecation goes to:

Unit 295, Tom & Debbie Berkel

Unit 660, John Snyder

Unit 1431, Steven Jones (Eli Wesley)

Unit 1481, Margaret Koons

Unit 3408, Randolph Faircloth

Unit 5597, James Stabler

Unit 5656, Gary Ruhl

Unit 6064, Lee Smith

Unit 6798, Darwin & Pat Yoder

Unit 7098, Matthew Stone

Unit 8033, Wesley Yoder

Unit 8057, Wilfredo Ascencio, Jr.

Unit 10153, Michael Spindler

Unit 10314, Carl Douglass

Unit 10315, Kenneth Christiana

Unit 10466, Michael Shelton

Unit 10567, Lenton Tucker

Unit 10615, Terry Barton

Unit 10637, Wayne White

Unit 10696, Tim Lester

Unit 10709, Patrick Valenti

Unit 10854, Samuel Miller

Unit 11304, Ray Lewandowski

Unit 11478, Everett Allington

Unit 11149, John Alcantara

Thank you, also, to Lynn Nelson. Lynn was the agent who presented Mercer with this opportunity. She went to the loading site and spent the entire time with the trucks, making sure they were fed and well taken care of. This move wouldn’t have gone as smooth without Lynn’s time and attention.

Texting While Driving Ban is Near

Congress is currently working on a nationwide ban on texting while driving.  Apparently to enforce the law, if states don’t comply with the ban, then they will not receive their Federal Highway money.

Studies show that average drivers are 23 times more likely to have an accident while texting and driving.  Those studies also show that truck drivers are 11 times more likely to have an accident while using an on board computer device while driving.

The ban will greatly impact the trucking industry, since more and more companies are texting drivers directions and other vital information.  My question to you is, is texting while driving as dangerous for truckers as it is for the average driver?  Does your over the road experience make you a better driver while you are looking at your phone, and not looking at the road?

So far, what I have read only indicates that their will be a ban on texting with a cell phone.  But I would imagine that if this ban goes into effect, than cops will pull you over for looking distracted by any device, whether it is a phone, computer, qualcomm, or gps.  If your hands are on a keyboard of any type, then I’m sure that you will get stopped.  What if you are just dialing a phone number?  Doesn’t that look the same as texting?  When a cop is sitting on the side of the highway, and your driving 65 mph past him, how can he tell the difference?  He is going to pull you over, and even if you claim to be dialing the phone, I will bet that he is going to at least perform a level 3 inspection on you.

Don’t get me wrong…I think that texting while driving is dangerous.  I think that it should be banned.  But the question is, how heavily will it be enforced.  Will police, and DOT use it for a reason to stop you to check you out further?  Some states are trying to ban texting while driving of younger drivers, say 21 and under.  That seems a little more realistic to me.  Or if you want to ban texting across the board, then ban eating and driving, applying makeup and driving, or changing your radio station and driving.  The American Trucking Association claims that the ban is “overboard”, and I tend to agree with them.

As I get off of my soap box, let me say that everyone knows that Mercer is one of the safest companies on the road.  I think that it is our responsibility to lead the way when it comes to trucking industry safety.  So if this ban goes into place, I feel confident that all of you will do fine.  I hope that you all respect the road, and you don’t currently text or use your laptop often while driving.  Slow the truck down while you are reading this J.P.

Let me know what you think about this ban, and how you think that it will affect you on a day to day basis.  I think that the negative of it is that it will lead to the ban of other things.  Hit the comments section up and let me know what you think!

UPDATE – Effective October 26th, Ontario Canada will place a ban on use of all hand held devices while driving.  This includes talking on your cell phone!