WASHINGTON – New York State currently allows double-tandem tractor-trailers on many of its roads with a maximum length of 65 feet.
There is a move afoot in the US Senate that would allow tandems up to 84 feet from front to back.
US Senator Charles Schumer said Wednesday that he is launching a campaign to fight that provision, which he said will make the roadways very dangerous.
“We are not Nevada or Wyoming or Montana where there might be these huge, long, straight roads,” Schumer noted. “We have a crowded highway system. Our highways are often curvy. We have lots of different mountains and hills, whether it be the Adirondacks, or the Catskills or the Alleganies and it makes no sense for the feds to overrule us.”
In the Hudson Valley alone, impacted roadways would include I-84, the Thruway, Route 17 and others.
Schumer noted the dangers that already exist on roads, pointing to the crash between a car and tractor-trailer in Warwick on Tuesday that claimed the lives of three Goshen High School students.
