Trucker blows up like a 'balloon' after falling on air hose

Today, another reminder that real life is not like a cartoon: A New Zealand truck driver says his body blew up "like a balloon" after he fell onto a compressed air hose, which pierced his buttock and forced air into his body, in a situation that was surely much more horrifying than when this sort of thing happens to Wile E. Coyote.

Steven McCormack was standing on his truck's foot plate Saturday when he slipped and fell, breaking a compressed air hose off an air reservoir that powered the truck's brakes.

He fell hard onto the brass fitting, which pierced his left buttock and started pumping air into his body.

"I felt the air rush into my body and I felt like it was going to explode from my foot," he told local media from his hospital bed in the town of Whakatane, on North Island's east coast.

Today, McCormack is OK after being treated at a hospital, where doctors determined that the air forcing its way into his body at 100 pounds a square inch did not enter his blood stream, but it did divide his muscle from fat.

What a random accident! We really hope he had good insurance lol
You could get a free quote for commercial trucking insurance at BerrierInsurance.com or call one of our experts at 888-472-4915. We can offer you the lowest prices and most comprehensive coverage for your trucks, business, or worker's compensation, just in case you fall on an air hose :)

Truckloads of migrants

X-ray machines at checkpoints in southern Mexico are capturing the ghostly outlines of a clandestine business worth billions a year, people packed tighter than cattle and transported like consumer goods in tractor-trailers to the United States.

The machines in place for less than two years at two state police checkpoints have led to the two largest hauls of migrants, who pay anywhere from $7,000 to $30,000 for passage, depending where they start.

The United Nations estimates that smuggling migrants across Mexico's border with the U.S. alone is a $6.6 billion business annually, compared to an estimated the $10 billion to $29 billion in illegal drug running. The migrant smuggling estimate doesn't include another $1 billion paid by thousands of non-Mexicans to cross from Guatemala and travel north, according to a 2010 U.N. report on transnational crime.

The 513 people apprehended Tuesday in two trailers in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, represented at least $3.5 million in cargo. Another trailer filled with 219 people was discovered in January.
Some suffered from dehydration after traveling for hours clinging to cargo ropes strung inside the containers to keep them upright, allowing more migrants to be crammed in.

Air holes had been punched in the tops of the containers, but migrants interviewed at the state prosecutor's office said they lacked air and water. The trucks were bound for the central city of Puebla, where the migrants said they had been told they would be loaded aboard a second set of vehicles for the trip to the U.S. border.

Smuggling in decades past was the business of small independent operators who helped migrants cross once they reached the U.S. border. But evading U.S. authorities has become much more difficult with increased border enforcement in recent years. At the same time, Mexico's migrant routes have become much more dangerous, controlled by drug gangs that see new moneymaking opportunities in kidnapping and extorting those who cross their territory.

In the case of Mexico's southern border, no one can say exactly who the organized smuggling groups are. Some say that large transport rings operate separately from Mexico's brutal drug gangs, such as the Zetas or the Gulf Cartel, who stick to kidnapping and extortion.

To Read more visit TheTrucker.com

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Lawmakers introduce a second Jason's Law bill for more truck parking

Two years after Schoharie County, N.Y., truck driver Jason Rivenburg was murdered at an abandoned South Carolina gas station, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., Wednesday morning were joined by Jason’s widow Hope and members of the transportation industry at the House Triangle outside the Capitol Building Wednesday morning to announce the reintroduction of another Jason’s Law, a bill aimed at increasing truck parking facilities across the country. Hope will personally lobbying members of Congress to cosponsor the bill.

Rivenburg was murdered in March 2009 during a robbery attempt for a meager $7. A long haul trucker, he had stopped to rest. The case called attention to the nationwide shortage of safe, accessible rest stops for truckers and led Tonko to introduce a similar bill in the 111th Congress.

Jason’s Law would create a grant program that would help alleviate the parking shortages and help pay for expansion and safety improvements at existing rest areas.

The American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association immeidately reaffirmed there support for Jason’s Law. The ATA called it critical safety legislation that would take steps to address the shortage of truck parking on nation’s highways.

“America’s professional truck drivers need access to safe and legal parking in order to get the rest they need to safely transport the nation’s essential goods and comply with federal hours-of-service rules,” Mary Phillips, ATA senior vice president of legislative affairs said at a press conference here. “We applaud Rep. Tonko for again introducing this critical legislation, and hope Congress will act quickly to deliver for those who deliver America’s goods. Our drivers shouldn’t be forced into the ‘no-win’ situation of choosing between continuing to drive to find safe parking or parking on the shoulder or ramp or other location that puts themselves or other motorists at risk.”

Jason’s Law would provide $20 million annually for a number of initiatives to improve access to truck parking across the country, ranging from construction of new parking capacity and improvements to existing commercial parking areas, to technology to track open parking spaces and improvements to existing noncommercial parking facilities to accommodate large trucks.

“The fact that states have been considering closing existing parking facilities in order to address their budget shortfalls underscores the need for this legislation,” Phillips said. “If left unaddressed, the lack of truck parking will reach a crisis stage; over the next 9 years, we will add nearly 2 million more trucks to our roads to meet our nation’s freight demand.”

The creation of more long-term truck parking has been a longstanding issue for the trucking industry and is a key part of ATA’s progressive safety agenda.

“We would like to thank Mr. Tonko and Mr. Paulsen for their leadership and Hope for her tenacious dedication and courage,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA. “The trucking industry faces a litany of issues, and the least we can do is to make sure drivers have a safe place to rest while delivering the nation’s goods.”

At Berrier Insurance, we love truckers. We specialize in commercial trucking insurance including tow trucks! That's not all we do though, we can also get you coverage for your motorcycle, ATVs, personal auto, and boats! Don't forget to check out our site, its just had a facelift! Visit us at BerrierInsurance.com and call us for a quick free quote at 888-472-4915.