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Louisville
Metro Police objected to the bill, saying that since 2005, the
department was able to reduce the number of accidents and deaths
involving commercial trucks by cracking down on the commercial vehicles
in that weight class.
Those vehicles can range from a pickup with a large trailer to a 24-foot box truck.
Lt.
Joe Seelye, commander of the department's traffic unit, told the
committee that while the bill as originally presented would have allowed
police to cite trucks for safety violations, it wouldn't have allowed
them to stop the trucks to look for problems.
He said police officers can't tell if brakes work properly or if loads are secure simply by driving past a moving truck.
Lt.
Doug Sweeney, of Louisville police, said that he understood that laws
could be a burden and sometimes costly to small businesses but that it
was not justification to exempt them from the law.
“I
don't just pull over Maseratis because they can afford citations. I
pull over Pintos and Hondas too,” he said. “These laws are designed to
keep people alive.”
Robert
Fleenor, who owns a plumbing company in Bowling Green, however,
testified in favor of the bill, saying that he had been pulled over
simply because he was driving a large pickup with a trailer and was told
he needed to get a federal commercial truck identification number.
Instead,
Fleenor said he just applied for an “agricultural” license plate
because farm trucks are already exempted from the federal rules.
“I just think the rules need to be equal for everyone,” he said.