The Work Isn't Finished

By Rebecca K. Oyler, President & CEO, Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association

Editor's Note: This opinion column was originally published by PennLive and is republished here with permission. You can also read the original version on PennLive.

The death of Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Michael Pahira is a tragedy that has touched every corner of our Commonwealth. On behalf of Pennsylvania's trucking industry, I extend my deepest condolences to his family, his fellow troopers, and all who knew him. Trooper Pahira lost his life while carrying out one of the most important responsibilities in public safety—protecting the traveling public by enforcing our commercial vehicle laws.

Every roadside inspection is intended to prevent the next crash. Every unsafe driver removed from the road is a life potentially saved. Tragically, Trooper Pahira never had the opportunity to complete his mission.

As the facts surrounding this case are fully examined, one thing is already clear: we cannot allow our commitment to highway safety to weaken. If anything, this tragedy should strengthen our resolve.

Last year, the Trucking Association Executives Council (TAEC), an organization representing the leaders of state trucking associations across the country, released The Fight for Fairness and Safety: Paving the Way for a Trucking Resurgence. The plan was developed with a simple but important goal: identify the weaknesses that allow bad actors to enter and operate within the trucking industry and recommend practical solutions to eliminate them. It recognizes what every reputable trucking company already knows—that the overwhelming majority of professional drivers are committed to operating safely, and that unsafe or fraudulent operators endanger everyone on the road. They also damage the reputation of an entire industry.

As one of the state trucking leaders who helped develop this plan, I have never viewed these recommendations as a document to sit on a shelf. After all, the value of any safety plan is not measured by the quality of its ideas, but by whether those ideas become action. Over the past year, many of the recommendations in The Fight for Fairness and Safety have moved from paper into practice.

The encouraging news is that this effort is producing real results.

Over the past year, federal and state agencies have removed thousands of non-compliant CDL training providers from federal registries, investigated hundreds of high-risk carriers, restored meaningful enforcement of English-language proficiency requirements, strengthened oversight of non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses, and increased efforts to combat fraud throughout the trucking industry. States across the country—including Pennsylvania—have pursued legislation and partnerships that reinforce these goals and strengthen the integrity of commercial driver licensing.

These are not isolated changes. Together, they represent a renewed commitment to ensuring that only qualified, properly trained, and accountable commercial drivers operate on America's highways.

But the progress of the past year also revealed an important reality: ensuring safety on our highways is only possible if the agencies responsible have the resources to do the job.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration oversees millions of drivers, carriers, and other regulated entities. Yet it continues to face significant staffing shortages, fragmented systems and processes, and limited investigative capacity. Recent progress demonstrates what's possible when federal leadership, state partners, and the trucking industry work together. Congress should build on that momentum by ensuring FMCSA has the resources necessary to continue modernizing its safety programs and enforcing the laws that protect all of us.

Safe highways benefit everyone. Law enforcement officers deserve to know that when they conduct a roadside inspection, every possible safeguard has been put in place to identify unsafe drivers before tragedy occurs. Professional truck drivers deserve assurances that those who ignore the rules or obtain licenses fraudulently will be held accountable. And every family traveling Pennsylvania's roads deserves confidence that our commercial vehicle safety system is working to keep everyone safe.

Trooper Michael Pahira dedicated his career to protecting others. The most meaningful way to honor his memory is to continue the work he was performing that day—strengthening our commercial vehicle safety system, removing bad actors from our highways, and giving the agencies charged with protecting the public the tools they need to succeed.

The work isn't finished. For the sake of every law enforcement officer standing beside our highways, every professional truck driver behind the wheel, and every family traveling our roads, it must continue.

Originally published by PennLive. Republished with permission.