Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has vowed to fix some glaring safety issues in the $325 billion highway funding bill which passed in the House of Representatives last week.
The measure would pay for six years’ worth of transportation infrastructure projects.
Highway safety advocates said that among dozens of amendments inserted in the House version of the bill are measures that will lead to more deaths on America's roads, including a provision that would allow teenage drivers to obtain a commercial driver's license, and drive tractor-trailers and buses across state lines.
Blumenthal said the measure was a gift to special interests, and will lead to more deadly crashes.
"What we will see as a result of this, is tired teenagers driving 84-foot-long, 91,000-pound rigs at 75 miles per hour on interstate highways without the insurance necessary to cover the catastrophe it could cause," Blumenthal said.
Advocates also said the highway funding bill rolls back requirements for tired truckers to rest, inadequately penalizes car manufacturers if they knowingly conceal a safety defect in one of their cars, and keeps the safety scores of passenger bus companies from public record.
During a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Blumenthal and Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey promised to work together to strike any provisions in the Senate version of the bill that would compromise driver safety.
