HB 4014, a bill to establish sensible weight limits for coal trucks, and to provide for their effective enforcement, came up for public hearing last Wednesday and Thursday afternoons before a Sub-Committee of the House Judiciary Committee. I came a little early and got one of the last seats. All the seats were filled and a lot of people stood in every available space along the walls, two deep in some places.

Death, the Dark Angel, was there, sitting in every chair and standing in every space along the walls. Everyone knew that overweight coal trucks have taken eleven (11) lives on West Virginia roads in the last eighteen months. Most everyone knew that fourteen (14) coal miners were killed in and around West Virginia coal mines in 2001. That’s twenty-five (25) dearly beloveds now gone from their loving family circles leaving behind aching voids of loneliness, pain and grief.

Bill Raney and Chris Hamilton attended for the Coal Association, along with several coal lobbyists and representatives of the trucking industry eg. the WV. Motor Truck Association. Our sisters from the Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) were there and so were our brothers, Doyle Coakley and Bill McCabe from Citizens Coal Council. Doyle made a good solid statement about his almost fatal encounter with a coal truck on a narrow road in Webster County a few years ago.

Janice Neace and Patty Sebok from CRMW made strong testimony about the fear they feel as they, or their loved ones, travel on roads occupied by over-weight, speeding and often poorly maintained coal trucks. Randall Boyd, a citizen from Hernshaw, Kanawha County, said a close friend was killed on Route 94 at Hernshaw, and he witnessed the deaths of two children there. Lisa M. Smith, a Delegate (R-Putnam) implored the Sub-Committee members to pass effective safety legislation, stating that public safety is the first responsibility of legislators.

Weight enforcement officials said the average weight of coal trucks in Southern WV is 143,000 pounds, as against 80,000 pounds legal limits on the interstates.

The Coal Association wants the weight limits greatly increased. The coalition backing HB 4014 wants them lowered, and better law enforcement.

It ‘s just that simple except that Bill Raney predicts "the end of the coal industry" and "economic disaster" for WV unless it gets what it wants.

Joseph Erengruber, Pocahontas Coal Association, Welch, WV also spoke for the industry. I hereby nominate him as "Mr. Sensitivity" of 2002. He stated that this issue is "a very emotional, sensitive issue but the Charleston Gazette is ‘overly sensitive’ on it. Why," he said, "if a person falls from a third story window in Welch into a coal truck and is killed, the Gazette headline will say ‘Man Killed By Coal Truck..’ Furthermore, the coal trucks are not a deadly danger, they’re only a nuisance because most of them go very, very slowly." [emphasis added]

This issue – this proposed law – the words said at the Hearings, contain the essence of West Virginia History for the past century or so. The public needs the jobs, the sustenance supplied by the industry. The industry wants its money. The industry throws a check down on the ground and says to the citizens: "Here it is. Take it, and take what comes with it."

"What comes with it" here is over-weight coal trucks and death, destruction and fear on the highways. Why does it always come to this in WV with the coal industry? Explosions, roof falls, black lung disease, ecological degradation, over-weight coal trucks. What’s next?

The Hearings on HB 4014 will continue from day to day "for as many meetings as necessary" so that "everyone has a chance to air their concerns" as stated by Richard Thompson (D-Wayne) Chair of the Sub-Committee when he opened the Hearing on Wednesday. We need to keep on coming out to the Hearings and filling the room and "airing our concerns." This is shaping up to be one of the pivotal issues of this Legislative Session, and deserves our fullest and best participation.