This is why federal regulations on truck safety are needed

Big Brother is watching. Some people may find that reassuring. It makes a lot of other folks in Ohio and elsewhere uncomfortable. They would just as soon limit Big Brother’s involvement in their lives to nothing or nearly so. Emotions about the subject tend to run high and thus they become the planks in political parties’ campaign platforms.

Regardless of how you may feel about government regulation, there are times when it becomes apparent to everyone that some level of oversight is necessary. Without some sort of enforceable controls, individuals will take matters into their own hands. Self-interest can trump general welfare and result in disastrous accidents — especially where commercial vehicles are involved.

An example of what we mean is presented in one recent story. It doesn’t involve a trucker from Ohio, but it could have, so we feel it deserves mention.

The case involves a driver in Georgia. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently declared the man an imminent hazard to public safety and ordered him out of the driver seat of any truck hauling goods interstate. The reason: he lied about the fact that he isn’t medically fit for the job.

According to the story, the man suffered some unidentified medical issue while driving on July 6. Details are sketchy, but officials say his truck crossed multiple lanes of traffic, crashed through a barrier and piled into a parked vehicle.

The driver was sent to a doctor and eventually let go from his job. But the FMCSA says that on the day after the accident mentioned above, the man filled out an application for another driving job and concealed the fact of his being medically unfit. He wound up getting that job and driving for more than two more months before being pulled from the road.

Big brother might rub some the wrong way but, as this reflects, sometimes he’s needed for safety’s sake.