Cruising down the Pennsylvania Turnpike through the Laurel Highlands on a snowy night wedged between 18-wheelers or slipping your subcompact into position in big-rig caravan on I-80, drivers of passenger cars are already concerned about the dangers of sharing the road with tractor trailers. People in passenger cars dwarfed by tractor trailers on the highways can only hope that the trucks around them are well-maintained and the drivers are skilled, experienced - and alert.

Tired drivers, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, account for up to 40 percent of truck crashes, which kill about 5,000 people a year.

Given that fact, it was disturbing this week to learn that Wal-Mart is pushing for federal legislation to expand truckers' work days to 16 hours from the current 14-hour limit. Safety groups and labor unions, are opposed to such a move, claiming it would endanger everybody on U.S. highways.

And it doesn't help ease motorists' concerns to learn that the bill is question is sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Boozman, a Republican from the Arkansas district where Wal-Mart's headquarters is located. It is worth noting that the company and its employees have contributed to Boozman's campaign, including $48,152 to his 2003-04 re-election effort.

The Wal-Mart also connection caught the attention of safety groups, who claim Wal-Mart's trucks have one of the worst crash rates of any major U.S. trucking operation. In 2003, according to Department of Transportation reports, 173 Wal-Mart trucks were involved in highway crashes. Those crashes resulted in 10 deaths.

Keeping truck drivers behind the wheel an extra 10 hours a week, as the proposed legislation would do, cannot be seen as a plus from a highway safety perspective. It would, however, allow trucking companies facing a shortage of workers to reduce the number of new drivers they have to hire. Critics of the Boozman bill also contend it would mostly help to fatten Wal-Mart's profits by loading more work and more hours on the company's current truck drivers.

Few would argue that truck driving is not a demanding job, with long hours and, in many cases, days away from home. The industry reports it is facing a serious shortage of workers, and recruiting and training drivers is neither cheap nor easy.

But to allow the trucking industry, or more accurately, Wall-Mart and a few national retailers, to push drivers further, with longer days and more hours behind the wheel, is not the way to solve the problem. Trading public safety for convenience and profits is not the sort of trade-off that Congress should permit.

- J.L.W.III