Mr. Chairman, I support the Sabo amendment, which would ensure that Mexican trucking companies undergo safety reviews before their trucks gain access to American highways.
Trucks are a major factor in highway fatalities. Even with safety regulations in place in the U.S., crashes involving large trucks killed 5,282 people in 1999. Of these fatalities, 363 occurred in my home state of California. Mexico's regulations are much weaker than ours. Drivers do not log their hours on the road, restrictions on hours behind the wheel are not enforced, drivers can be under 21, trucks that violate safety standards are not taken off the road, and trucks can weigh significantly more than in the U.S.
Of the nearly 4 million trucks that enter the U.S. commercial zones from Mexico annually, the U.S. inspects only 1%. Of that 1%, more than a third are removed from service because they are unsafe. This is a dismal record. We must ensure that trucks from Mexico are safe before they are allowed on every highway in the United States. I urge my colleagues to vote for the Sabo amendment.