Failed DEA Cartel Sting Results in Dead Driver, Damaged Truck

thetruckersreport.com

Story thanks to thetruckersreport.com Link provided below:

When Craig Patty hired a new driver to operate one of the two trucks in his burgeoning fleet, he never expected that the man he hired had anything less that the pristine background that he saw on the job application. He wouldn’t have imagined that a government agency had falsified thecriminal history report of his new employee so that they could use him as an informant. And he would never have believed that the DEA would refuse to offer him protection or pay for the damages after they used the informant in a botched sting operation that resulted in the destruction of his truck and death of his employee at the hands of the notorious Zetas drug cartel.

And yet, that’s exactly what happened.

The employee’s name was Lawrence Chapa and even though he had an extensive criminal record, the DEA wiped that clean so that he would be able to pass the background check that Patty ran when he was hired. They were planning on using him as part of an operation that would catch members of the Zetas drug trafficking crime syndicate. Patty was never informed that his driver was anything more than he appeared to be.

One day Chapas was supposedly taking the truck for repairs in Houston when he was in fact driving a truck full of marijuana to the border and back for the DEA. He was being escorted by officers wearing plain clothes who were ready to bust the drug traffickers when the drugs were delivered.

The sting went horribly wrong when the truck was ambushed in broad daylight by three vehicles who opened fire on the truck, killing Chapas and severely damaging the truck. Two law enforcement officers were injured and four suspects were taken into custody and charged with capital murder.

Patty knew nothing about any of this until he received a call that his driver had been murdered and that he would have to come remove his damaged vehicle at his own expense or pay storage charges. Patty received neither an apology from the DEA nor any money to pay for repairs of the vehicle. Furthermore, his insurance company refused to pay for the damages since the truck had been used for illegal activities. He paid to have the truck removed and repaired by taking money out of hisretirement plan.

Since his request for the DEA to pay for the damages was ignored, Patty is suing the DEA for up to $6.4 million. The price tag includes the cost of repairs, lost income from not being able to use the truck during the time it was damaged, and for emotional hardship. Patty and his family have been living in fear since the attack, worried that the Zetas cartel might mistakenly think that he had something to do with the operation and come to exact revenge.

According to an interview with the Houston Chronicle he and his family still jump at every noise, from deer on their yard to a car pulling in to the driveway.

“I’ve gone to great lengths to keep my son believing in Santa Claus,” Patty said. “And now I’m talking to him about death, mayhem and drug cartels.”

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/failed-dea-cartel-sting-results-in-dead-driver-damaged-truck/?utm_source=The+TruckersReport+Weekly+Newsletter+Recipients&utm_campaign=8bde6ca67c-Weekly_Newsletter_Test_Campaign1_25_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_de09ecb18a-8bde6ca67c-38416925

Cheater Wrench Makes Easy Work of Tightly Torqued Wheel Nuts

cheaterwrench.com

Article thanks to truckinginfo.com Link Provided below:

DT Industries

11/04/2013  The Cheater Wrench from DT Industries allows anyone driving a truck or other heavy-duty vehicle to remove their lug nuts and change their own tires. The Cheater Wrench is a torque-multiplying tool with a 78:1 turn ratio, making it easy to overcome the recommended 500 or so foot-pounds to which wheel lug nuts are supposed to be tightened. DT Industries says with the tool, truckers can change their own tires at roadside rather than waiting for tire repair truck, which can take several hours and cost a lot of money.
Carson Woolley, co-founder of DT Industries and a working driver, says he found tire problems incredibly frustrating. "For me, time was money," he says. "Blown tires took away a lot of time and cost hundreds of dollars on top of that."
Woolley says that after buying a similar product that was available only from an online auction site, he formed a partnership and had the tools manufactured under the brand name, Cheater Wrench, and began marketing the tool online.
It works the same way a transmission works to move heavy loads. With a 78:1 gear reduction, it takes 78 revolutions of the handle to turn the nut once. That makes it easy to loosen even properly torqued wheel nuts.
The torque multiplying Cheater Wrench comes with four 1-inch-drive deep impact sockets (41mm, 38mm, 33mm, SQ 21mm), and a socket extender.
The tool is available online at cheaterwrench.com or at Amazon.com.
Truckinginfo.com reminds users that changing tires at roadside can be a very dangerous practice. Always find a safe and level location, follow proper procedures and take all safety precautions when jacking the truck and changing the tire, including verifying the proper torque required for retightening the lug nuts. As per recommendations of the Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC) of the American Trucking Associations, wheel nuts must always be retorqued to the proper settings using a calibrated torque wrench after 50 to 100 miles. Check with manufacturer for proper torque ratings and procedures.
http://www.truckinginfo.com/channel/owner-operators/product/detail/2013/11/cheater-wrench-makes-easy-work-of-tightly-torqued.aspx?utm_campaign=Headline-News-20131105&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Enewsletter

"Christmas 2013" The passing of my step-father

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Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I will be traveling back to Wisconsin for my step-father's funeral this week. He's a special man, World War II decorated fighter pilot, life-long teacher and high school principal. He met and married his first wife, the love of his life and for decades, they were together. After illness took her life, Vic spent quite a few years alone, eventually meeting my mom in 2002. And they have been married for 10 years. My mom lost my father in 1999. Vic and mom have loved and taken care of each other while each professing their love for their former spouses. After all, they spent the majority of their lives with their previous mates raising their own children. Listening to this song had was quite moving to me as my step-dad is going home to join his original wife! My mom will be going to join to my dad someday, I hope it's a long ways off. Thanks for reading this blog, comments and guest posts are always welcome.

Schneider: New HOS Rules Hurt Productivity

flickr.com

We all new this was happening, now companies are documenting it. Article thanks to truckinginfo.com Link provided below:

10/24/2013  Since the new hour of service rules implementation on July 1, the fleet Schneider National says it has seen a 3.1% drop in productivity on solo shipments and a 4.3% decline on team shipments.

The results are similar to Schneider’s forecasted 3% to 4% decline, which was based on predictive modeling and presented as testimony to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in February 2011.

“The hours of service changes could not have come at a worse time,” said Dave Geyer, senior vice president/general manager of Schneider’s Van Truckload division. “We now need more drivers to do the same amount of work, but regulations, economic conditions and demographics are working against us in terms of recruiting new drivers. “We’re being restricted in the number of miles we can give them and the ongoing challenges that come with sharply rising operating costs.”

While productivity has been impacted, safety has not.

“Safety performance dramatically improved under the previous hours of service rules and there is no evidence to support that changing the rules has improved safety,” said Geyer. “Ongoing feedback from our drivers is consistent, they do not feel better rested as a result of the rules change, just less productive.”

For many drivers, the lure and independence of the open road are no longer worth the pay and regulatory pressure they are now facing, according to Schneider, adding that driver turnover is trending up and is back at prerecession levels.

Schneider cited a recent research brief by John Larkin, managing director of Stifel Transportation & Logistics Research Group, stating regulations such as HOS create a challenging driver market. “Virtually all of the proposed federal rules and regulations either reduce the size of the driver pool or reduce the productivity of the drivers remaining in the pool,” he noted. “As a result, drivers remain a scarce input.”

Carriers and drivers aren’t the only ones adjusting to the changes. Shippers are feeling the impact, too, said Schneider. Many shippers are indicating carriers across the industry, as well as their own private fleets, are already experiencing productivity and on-time service declines.

“To put it in the simplest of terms, capacity continues to tighten, productivity has been reduced and it’s harder and more costly than ever to acquire and retain drivers,” said Geyer. “This trifecta is a cost burden that carriers cannot bear alone.”

http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/story/2013/10/schneider-new-hos-rules-hurt-productivity.aspx?utm_campaign=Headline-News-20131025&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Enewsletter

Coach crash prevention system tracks drivers' eyes

bbc.co.uk.com

What are they up to in the UK? The following story thanks to the bbc.co.uk Link provided below:
 
By Leo Kelion  10 December 2013

Coach drivers' eye movements and blinks are to be tracked by computers as part of a test to see whether the tech could be used to prevent accidents on long distance trips.

Five firms have each fitted the product to two coaches as part of a trial taking place across continental Europe.

Seeing Machines' Fatigue Monitoring System is already used by miners.

However, one expert cautioned it was unclear whether it would improve safety in the coach industry.

The Australian firm's product uses special cameras installed inside a vehicle to monitor the driver's gaze.

If it detects they are distracted or taking "microsleeps" - naps that can last less than a second and take place without the person's knowledge - it activates a vibration motor built into their seat.

In addition it triggers an alarm in the co-driver's sleeping compartment to alert them to the fact they should take over control of the vehicle.

The patented technology uses invisible infrared light to detect the driver's eyes in the dark without distracting them, and can be used even if they are wearing glasses.

Seeing Machines' chief executive suggested the system could detect the risk of an accident at an earlier point than alternative products such as lane detection cameras and steering wheel monitoring sensors.

"Coach accidents aren't that frequent, but when they do happen they are so catastrophic that they make the [newspaper] front pages and in a lot of cases it is almost the end of the coach company involved as no-one wants to ride with them anymore," Ken Kroeger told the BBC.

"The way the technology works is that it tracks your head position and your eye aperture.

"If you turn your head beyond a certain angle for a specified duration while moving over a certain speed, it will remind you your eyes should be on the road.

"Then for fatigue it looks at the frequency of blinking, the velocity of the eyelid when it's opening and the duration of the eye closure to determine if it's a microsleep."

Seeing Machines has teamed up with the coach operator Royal Beuk to hold the trial.

The Dutch firm has installed the tech on two of its vehicles and has recruited a further four coach firms to do likewise.

Over the winter months the vehicles will travel from the Netherlands to ski resorts in Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Then, in the summer, they will travel to southern parts of France, Italy and Spain.

"There are competitor products on the market and we evaluated a few of them," Royal Beuk's research manager Marc Beuk said.

"But all of the others required something from the driver. One system required them to wear a special hat, another involved special glasses hooked up to wires.

"This was the only device that we know of that didn't give the driver something to do - once he turns the ignition key the system boots up and it starts monitoring him."

He added that if the nine-month test was a success, his firm intended to install the kit across its 60-vehicle fleet and act as its European distributor.

Coach crashes

In recent years driver fatigue has been blamed for several accidents.

US investigators said it was a factor in a bus crash in which 15 passengers died in New York in 2011, as well as another similar incident which killed four people in Virginia last year.

In the UK, a coroner cited it as the reason a coach veered off the M25 motorway near Slough, Berkshire, in 2003, resulting in the deaths of six people.

However, one expert warned it was unclear exactly how common the problem was.

"Crashes are very rare when measured per kilometre, nevertheless they do occur and some of these may be related to fatigue, although very little is known about the precise numbers," said Prof Pete Thomas, head of the Transport Safety Research Centre at Loughborough University.

"The trial of a driver-fatigue detection system for coach drivers will provide useful further information to help improve coach safety, although it is important the trials are properly scientifically controlled.

"Other factors such as speed and alcohol may also be important causes of coach crashes and bus operators should continue to reduce all types of risks."

It currently costs the mining industry about £10,000 to install Seeing Machines' equipment in each vehicle on top of a continuing licence fee.

But the firm said that if the trial was a success it intended to offer coach firms a "less rugged" version that would be about a quarter of the cost.

It added it was also in early-stage talks to introduce its products to the airline industry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25298346?goback=%2Egde_134135_member_5816181383655075844#%21