Trucking group’s numbers are off
In response to a trucking association spokesman’srecent letter, I would like to address claims that statements in my June 30 opinion column were misleading. He argues that the number I provided about truck-involved deaths was not accurate. Not true. According to a June U.S. DOT report, 4,251 people died in heavy commercial vehicle (HCV)-related crashes in 2013. He also claimed that I insinuated each fatality was the fault of commercial drivers – I disagree. His statement that “numerous analyses of fatal car-truck crashes have shown up to 75 percent are the result of actions by the car driver” is debatable. His misleading statement is based on police interviews with survivors. In 98 percent of fatalities between HCVs and cars, passenger-vehicle occupants are deceased. So the only version of what happened is from the professional driver. Instead of playing the “blame game,” the trucking industry should be doing everything possible to make the roads we all share safer.
STEPHEN C. OWINGS, PRESIDENT, ROAD SAFE AMERICA
Racism changes political parties
A contributor pointed out recently that racism in the Old South was dominated by Democrats, and that it is not fair to suggest that only Republicans have racist motives or beliefs. That was then, and this is now. The Republican party of Lincoln’s time, who gave us the Emancipation Proclamation, now is the refuge of white racists everywhere. Racism never went away, it just changed political parties. Sadly, the same Republican voters waving (or hiding) the Confederate Flag don’t realize that while your vote is gladly accepted, your worth as a person is devalued just the same, if you are not prosperous and white and male.
DAVID HOLBROOK, LAWRENCEVILLE
Lawrenceville
Socialist Obamacare hurts small business
Blowing smoke by liberal Democrats does not lessen the social impact of Obamacare. Socialism is becoming accepted by too many as the normal course of business and governing. Those of us who are footing the bill for this new round of welfare remember well the words of one ACA adviser who said it was simply a way to take money from those who pay for insurance and give it to those who don’t. Others have said it and I agree: Obamacare will finally collapse under its own weight. It brings back painful memories when Hillary Clinton said that a business shouldn’t be in business unless it could afford to pay the health insurance premiums for its employees. That proved to me that she was too far removed from the realities and struggles of small business; and Ted Kennedy piled on and said that small business people were bottom feeders. By that measurement, I’m a bottom feeder and I resent columnist Jay Bookman’s claim that the fault lies with Republicans.
JACK FRANKLIN, CONYERS
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