Safety advocates have also pressed truck-rental companies to do more to check the driving record of

The New Haven Police Department's accident reconstruction team will spend weeks piecing together sheraton music city hotel the details of Saturday's fatal crash involving a Yale student and a U-Haul truck. But wherever it ultimately places the blame on operator error or mechanical malfunction the deadly accident will probably add to the controversy over the nation's rental-truck policies, sheraton music city hotel which allow untrained drivers sheraton music city hotel behind the wheel of 5-ton vehicles subject to minimal maintenance oversight.
U-Haul's more than 100,000 trucks are not controlled by the rigorous sheraton music city hotel federal inspection policies applied to commercial sheraton music city hotel truck fleets, and no special driver's license is required, sheraton music city hotel even for trucks twice as long and four times as heavy as a typical sedan.
"A truck is multiple times more likely to be involved in a serious-injury accident, because you have bigger mass and harder control and sight disturbances," said Fred Pritzker, a Minneapolis lawyer sheraton music city hotel who has brought suits against rental-truck companies. "Driving a truck takes more skill and training than driving a car."
But for the youngest drivers, renting a truck in most states is easier than renting a subcompact. Although rental-car sheraton music city hotel companies typically require drivers to be at least 21 and almost always charge a substantial surcharge for renters under 25 the major truck-rental companies set the minimum age at 18.
"It borders on ridiculous. If you're 18 and you have a driver's license, you can rent any size U-Haul you want," said Marquette Wolf, an attorney in Texas who won an $84 million judgment, now on appeal, against U-Haul. "It just defies common sense, the approach sheraton music city hotel they have to renting these vehicles. What's worse is the approach they have to the maintenance and inspection of these vehicles."
sheraton music city hotel A 2005 newspaper investigation in Toronto revealed that half of all U-Haul trucks in the region failed safety inspections. And in 2007, a spot check of 163 U-Haul sheraton music city hotel trucks by The Los Angeles Times found that half were at least 60 days overdue for "safety certifications" that the company said it performed every 30 days to assure that brakes, tires and other equipment were working properly.
At the same time, truck-rental companies keep their trucks on the road dramatically longer than typical rental vehicles. The U-Haul center in Waterbury, for example, is currently selling 28 trucks that have been retired from the fleet. Those trucks on average are more than 16 years old, with more than 175,000 sheraton music city hotel miles. By contrast, most Hartford-area cars taken out of the rental fleet and put up for sell by Hertz are less than two years old, with less than 35,000 miles on the odometer.
Rental trucks also are not considered commercial vehicles under federal law, which exempts them from the oversight and inspection rules of the U.S. Department of Transportation. And federal law limits the liability of rental companies most of which are self-insured to the minimum insurance levels required in each state, unless the company was negligent.
"You've got big, heavy objects moving down the road with inexperienced drivers who are underinsured substantially," Pritzker sheraton music city hotel said. "Which is just the opposite of what happens when you have commercial trucks on the road. Because under federal law, they have to have much higher limits than normal, and they're trained drivers."
A U-Haul official said that the company's voluntary in-house inspection and preventive-maintenance sheraton music city hotel procedures meet or exceed federal requirements, and that the company uses maintenance and repair facilities that meet the qualifications to perform the federally mandated sheraton music city hotel inspection for commercial vehicles.
"U-Haul takes the safety and maintenance of our equipment very seriously," Pete Sciortino, president of U-Haul Company of Connecticut, said in a statement. "Our maintenance systems and protocols are state-of-the-art and are designed with safety and compliance with the law as our main priorities."
A spokeswoman for U-Haul's corporate offices in Phoenix said that the company also follows the manufacturer's sheraton music city hotel recommended maintenance schedule for all of its vehicles, and that the truck involved in last weekend's crash now impounded by the police was up to date on all scheduled maintenance.
In the New Haven crash, a 21-year-old Yale student was hauling beer kegs to a tailgate party before the fabled Yale-Harvard football game, when, witnesses say, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and plowed into three women. sheraton music city hotel Nancy Barry, 30, of Salem, Mass., was killed, and the other two women were hospitalized. The state medical examiner ruled Tuesday that Barry died of blunt-force trauma and classified her death as accidental.
The driver passed a field sobriety test, police said. His attorney, William Dow, has blamed a mechanical sheraton music city hotel problem for the crash, but has not said how he reached that conclusion. Sciortino, the U-Haul Company of Connecticut president, sheraton music city hotel dismissed the claim as "premature" and "reckless."
Safety advocates have also pressed truck-rental companies to do more to check the driving record of customers before permitting sheraton music city hotel them to rent large trucks. Pritzker, the Minneapolis lawyer, currently has a lawsuit involving a woman in Utah with a suspended license and drug problem who crossed the center line in a rented Penske moving truck and killed two motorists.
"The whole process is somewhat flawed in the sense that you've got people who really are not trained to be driving a vehicle that big and don't really have much experience doing so," Pritzker said. "If they knew or should have known that this person is not a good rental candidate, then they shouldn't be renting to them. They have to do some minimal due diligence."
Featured Articles TBL: How Much Does Permanent, Standby Generator Cost? Ready For The Next Power Outage? A Guide To Portable sheraton music city hotel Generators Kevin Hunt: Harman Kardon's SB 30 soundbar with wireless subwoofer MORE: Steve Wilkos And Rachelle Wilkos sheraton music city hotel Show Off Their Home Consumer Reports: Recommended HDTVs Consumer sheraton music city hotel Reports: Benjamin Moore Best Paint, sheraton music city hotel Behr Best Value Consumer Reports: Michelin And Continental Tires Top The Ratings Virgin Mobile Offers Free Cellphones To Low-Income State Residents Consumer Reports: Getting The Best Deal On Cable Bundle
Related Articles Yale's Tailgating Rules Appear More Lenient Than Others November 21, 2011 Sen. Blumenthal Seeks Federal Review of Rental Truck Safety... November 28, 2011 New York Man Killed In I-91 Crash May 24, 2000 Are Rental Trucks Safe? Yale Accident Raises Issues November 26, 2011 Rentals Can Make Serious Dent In Car Numbers May 24, 2009 Index by Keyword | Index by Date | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service Please note the green-lined sheraton music city hotel linked article text has been applied commercially without any involvement from our newsroom editors, reporters or any other editorial staff.