Dear Mayor:

Yesterday the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled against the State of New Jersey in its appeal of the prior District Court ruling in the case of American Trucking Association, et al. v. Whitman, et al. http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/042201p.pdf The League had intervened as amicus curiae, or Friend of the Court, to support the state's appeal in this case.

The three judge panel affirmed the holding of Federal District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler striking down a New Jersey ban of inter-state heavy truck traffic on secondary and rural roads, where that traffic would pose a serious threat to public safety. The inter-state trucking industry challenged the ban as a discriminatory interference with inter-state commerce, and Judge Chesler agreed.

At the request of the League's Heavy Truck Task Force, chaired by Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio, the State had issued the restrictions on such traffic that have been invalidated in this decision. The request came in response to such tragic accidents as the May, 2000 death of Ms. Joan Eschen. Ms. Eschen was killed, as she worked in a Lambertville video store on Route 29, when the driver of a trash truck, bound from Massachusetts to a Pennsylvania landfill, lost control of his vehicle, jumped a curb, and crashed into the store.

We are pleased to report that Governor Corzine had decided to appeal this devastating decision to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to protect the health and safety of the residents of New Jersey. We further call on New Jersey's Congressional delegation to ask the federal government for the grant of power to the states to impose the necessary regulations on local roads. As Lambertville Mayor and League Vice President David DelVecchio has commented "If this ban is not reinstated, more lives will be needlessly lost. That is far too high a price for anyone to pay, so that a few miles can be shaved off a trip or a few tolls avoided."

We will keep you of further developments in this case. Should you have any questions or concerns about this communication, please contact Deborah M. Kole, Staff Attorney, at the League, ex. 37, or at dkole@njslom.com.