Unfair to Blame Trucks for Accidents

I’m writing in response to the article written by Aaron Curtiss (Feb. 12) on whether or not the state of California should let three-trailer big rigs drive on our streets and freeways. I disagree with Assemblyman Richard Katz and the other officials who say that these trucks are hard to control and cause deadly accidents.

These trucks and their drivers do not cause these accidents, it’s the people who cut these trucks off. They expect the truck drivers to see them and stop in time, even in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I’ve been driving California freeways for enough years to see what happens when people change lanes in front of trucks without signaling. It makes me sick because the accident report almost always puts the truck driver at fault. People have no idea what it is like to sit up in the cab of one of these big rigs. The perspective you have on the vehicles around you is completely different from that of a car.

I would much rather drive on the freeway with a hundred of these big rig drivers than with people who still don’t know what the little arrows on their dashboards are for.

HEIDI STRAIF

Chatsworth