Media Advisory

October 8, 2002

Contact: Vivian Stockman 304-522-0246 or Judy Bonds 304-854-2182

Groups wont attend trucker rally

DeMarco invited to see Coal Bucket Outlaw at Flooded Out Film Festival

WHITESVILLE, W. Va. Citizen groups have offered a resounding thanks, but no thanks to an offer to attend an Oct. 20 Logan Co. rally, which will be staged by truckers who favor increasing the weight limits on coal trucks.

Tuesday, the Beckley Register Herald reported that Corky DeMarco, chief of the West Virginia Natural Resources Transporters Association would open the rally to speakers who oppose an increase on coal truck weight limits.

At first blush, you might think Corkys gone quirky and suddenly supports free speech. But wed be dorky to take up that offer from Corky, given the intimidation folks who oppose a weight increase for coal trucks have endured so far, said Vivian Stockman, project coordinator for the Huntington-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

I will have to turn down Mr. DeMarco's invitation, said Julia Bonds, director of Coal River Mountain Watch. The last time I accepted an invitation from Mr. DeMarco, I received harassing phone calls from industry workers.

During the special session at the Capitol, the truckers tried to intimidate us by surrounding us and following us all day. They defaced my sign. They harassed seniors and the mothers of children killed by illegal overweight coal trucks. Even if DeMarco could assure our safety, I would not attend, because I think this rally is in poor taste, so close to the latest coal truck tragedy that claimed the lives of three college students," Bonds said.

Pauline Canterberry, 72, of Sylvester said, I experienced the truck drivers treatment of the elderly at the Capitol in Charleston this past July. Why exactly does DeMarco want us to come to Logan? For more of the same? No thank you.

In July at the capitol, the truckers and their wives followed us around and shouted at us. One woman shouted Everybody's got to die sometime. You people need to get over it, recalled Patsy Carter of Mingo County. During this incident, Carter was carrying a photo of her late daughter, crushed by an overweight coal truck on May 2, 2000.

I am not opposed to coal, but these drivers need to understand one thing. It has been 2 years and 5 months since the death of my daughter. It doesn't matter if it has been 10 years and 5 months it is a lifetime thing. It never goes away, Carter said. Why should I go and try to explain to the truck drivers why the weight limit shouldn't be raised and why the law should be enforced after the way they treated me? Why should I watch them having fun when those college kids were so recently killed?

DeMarco said the rally will include entertainment and food. He also noted that hed like to see the states roads upgraded to handle increased weights.

Does Mr. DeMarco think the citizens should subsidize the upgrading of roads for the coal companies? asked Patty Sebok of Coal River Mountain Watch.

Mr. DeMarco needs to come to the Flooded Out Film Festival this Thursday evening at the Capitol Theatre in Charleston, Sebok said. We invite him to come watch Coal Bucket Outlaw. The documentary is about Kentucky truckers and how they still cant make a living hauling 120,000 lbs. The truckers need to see this too, to understand they are pawns of the industry. But we wont come to their party, not after the way they have behaved.

"A rally by coal haulers to increase the weight limits is blatantly self-serving. Even worse, it's an affront to the families of coal truck victims and a not-so-veiled threat to the public to stay out of their way," said Norm Steenstra, president of We the People, a group opposed to raising the weights limits on coal trucks.