Trucks, Bridges, and GPS Disasters

Photograph by Dieter Spears/Getty Images

Infrastructure

Trucks, Bridges, and GPS Disasters

October 04, 2012

Companies Mentioned

  • GOOG

    Google Inc

    • $829.61 USD
    • 9.18
    • 1.11%
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Truckers can equip their rigs with special GPS-connected devices that provide crucial details like bridge clearance heights. Too many don’t, and wind up wedged in an underpass. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer blames drivers who use consumer GPS units or Google (GOOG) Maps for 80 percent of the 1,289 truck collisions with New York bridges between 2005 and August 2011, which cost millions in repairs. The New York Democrat is seeking new federal GPS regulations, but the American Trucking Associations wants to pump the brakes: “A call for national standards appears premature,” spokesman Sean McNally says.

Plungis is a reporter for Bloomberg News.
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