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House approves trailer
brake clarification
Huuki bill exempts slasher
logging equipment from MDOT law |
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The House today approved House Bill 4316, sponsored by
Rep. Matt Huuki, to specify that nothing in the state’s
current law would require a slasher table saw trailer
used in logging operations to be equipped with brakes.
The act addresses brake requirements based on vehicle
weight.
“Technically, the enforcement is in accordance to the
law because the saw trailer is within the MDOT weight
requirements,” said Huuki, R-Atlantic Mine. “Part of the
trouble seems to be that the enforcement depends on what
part of the state the work is in and then how it is
being interpreted.”
Last month Huuki was joined before the House
Transportation Committee by Brian Nelson, a Cornell
logger and president of the Michigan Association of
Timbermen; Henry Schienebeck, executive director of the
Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association; and Abe
VanDuinen, of VanDuinen Forest Products in Lake City,
who was recently ticketed for the trailer brake
violation.
“In essence you have two trailers and one is one-tenth
the weight of the rest of the rig,” Nelson told the
committee. “If the law is a safety issue, the
configuration of hitch, hydraulic hoses and safety
chains connecting them won’t release the slasher
trailer; if it’s a control issue, brakes on a 3,000
pound vehicle aren’t going to stop the rest of the
tractor/trailer.”
Schienebeck added that requiring brakes on the smaller
trailer may result in a bigger safety issue, as there
isn’t a way to regulate how much brake pressure is
applied to the main vehicle compared to the slasher
trailer.
“An analogy I came up with for comparison is like towing
an inner tube behind a boat or a toboggan behind a
snowmobile because putting that much braking on the
lighter trailer could cause it to start swinging
side-to-side behind the rig,” he said. “Another
statistic is that the number of traffic accidents
increases with the amount of time on the road; this
equipment is only moved once a month, or even once every
two months.”
The transportation committee, which Huuki serves on,
recommended the bill unanimously after some members
recalled that last year a different special exemption
was granted for transporting slasher logging rigs
because of their specialized nature.
House Bill 431
State Rep. Matt Huuki, left, listens as Brian Nelson,
Michigan Association of Timbermen president, gives
testimony on House Bill 4316 to the House Transportation
Committee. Abe Van Duinen of VanDuinen Forest Products,
center, and Henry Schienebeck, Great Lakes Timber
Professionals Association executive director, also
attended the committee meeting.
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Polar Bear
Cookbook
Thank you
to everyone who submitted
recipes for the Polar Bear
Hockey Cookbook. The cookbooks
are now available. The cost for
the cookbooks are $10.00 so make
sure to grab one for yourself
and maybe one or two as a gift.
They can be purchased at the Pat
O'Donnel Civic Center concession
stand or by contacting Kerry
Roehm or Micki Sorensen. |
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