Honkin' Mad

TxDot official injured in car wreck

Maribel Chavez, Fort Worth district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, was hospitalized Tuesday after being injured in a car wreck Monday night in southwest Fort Worth.

Chavez was injured when another driver ran a stop sign and struck her vehicle, a department spokeswoman said. Chavez's right arm was broken in two places, and she suffered numerous cuts and bruises, but her injuries were not considered life threatening. Doctors at Harris Methodist Fort Worth surgically repaired her arm during a 2 1/2-hour procedure Tuesday afternoon.

Chavez had been scheduled to testify Tuesday during a legislative hearings on toll projects at the Texas Transportation Summit in Irving.

Bus crash is big topic at summit

Seat belts could have saved many lives. Latest story. Also, in that story are links to our coverage the past five days.

Swanky place

Omni Mandalay, Las Colinas, Irving, Texas.

Elected officials from across the region spend their constituents' money to come to this place and talk about transportation.

Bloggin' the transportation summit

Each year, more than 1,000 politicians, engineers and other transportation experts get together for a four-day Texas Transportation Summit. I'm covering the event all week, so if you've got a transportation-related question, ask me and I'll track down the person with an answer for you. This year it's at the Omni Mandalay hotel in Las Colinas ... Just about everyone is here ... Members of Congress, state legislators, county commissioners, highway and rail people, Texas Department of Transportation and North Texas Tollway Authority people, DART, the T and Denton County transit ... and consultants out the wazoo!

-- Gordon.

Summit agenda: http://www.2008transportationsummit.com/

Weird happenings on 20

Good to hear from reader known as "The Other Guy on I-20." Here's his latest dispatch from the big road:
Strange but true On the drive along I-20 from Duncanville to Fort Worth, I saw....

• A guy on a motorcycle talking on a cell phone.  (How can he do that, and still hear?)
• An 18-wheeler driving around a tree branch in the road. (He kicked up so many rocks and twigs in going around the tree branch.)
• The guy who speeds up, then slows down, then speeds up, then slows down. (Make up your mind!)

DPS needs a makeover

Think about this the next time you're getting a car inspected or renewing a driver license:

The Texas Department of Public Safety is failing to properly manage the vehicle inspection program, and the state's driver license division doesn't meet consumers' needs, according to a scathing report released Friday by a state commission.

Texans are required to have their cars inspected yearly for safety and, in major cities, for emissions. But DPS lacks the supervision to prevent the issuance of fraudulent inspection stickers, the Sunset Advisory Commission report states.

Also, the average wait time for calls to DPS' customer service phone line is 13.5 minutes, and only 35 percent of calls are completed because most people get frustrated and hang up.

The commission, a group of state lawmakers that periodically reviews state agencies to determine if they're still functioning properly, is recommending major changes at DPS. Among them:

• Run the vehicle inspection and driver license programs like a business, instead of a law enforcement function. Many civilian, consumer-related duties are still managed by an outdated, law enforcement chain of command, the report noted.

• Overhaul DPS to focus more on law enforcement duties, including highway patrol, anti-terrorism efforts, drug and gang interdiction and border security issues.

The issue is expected to be a hot topic during the 2009 legislative session, which begins in January in Austin.

READ THE REPORT HERE (114 pages)

The report notes that few state agencies touch as many lives as DPS. "Virtually every adult in the state has a driver license or identification card issued by the agency, and automobile owners must get their vehicles inspected at stations regulated by DPS," a summary of the report reads. "Because Texas ranks first among the states for frequency of tornadoes and flash floods, DPS’ emergency management efforts also impact large numbers of Texans. ... Despite its many dedicated employees, the Department’s tendency to do things 'because they’ve always been done that way,' and not carefully scrutinize operations reduces the agency’s success."

Transportation changes in Austin

Guv Perry has declared that Texas Transportation Commission member Hope Andrade of San Antonio will be temporary chairwoman, replacing the late Ric Williamson of Weatherford. Hope has been on the commission since '03. Read more at the Star-Telegram's political blog.

She'll preside over the commission's next monthly meeting Thursday in Victoria. It'll be the first meeting since the loss of Williamson, Perry's close friend who died of a heart attack in late December.

Quorum Report predicts that former Perry chief of staff Deirdre Delisi may be named Williamson's successor, and possibly next chair.

If that came to pass, it'd be the first time in a long time that the commission hasn't had at least one member from North Texas.

The commission oversees the Texas Department of Transportation, and under Perry has dramatically expanded the use of alternative financing, debt and tolls to pay for roads.

Whacha think about a 40-cent/gallon gas tax hike?

Comments anybody? READ THE REPORT HERE

And the S-T STORY HERE

Ric Williamson dies

Texas' top transportation man has died. The decision-making landscape surely will never be the same.

Read about it HERE and HERE.

¡Honk, honk! Aquí ellos vienen ...

13 years after NAFTA was approved ...

AP is reporting that a congressional committee has endorsed a plan to allow up to 1,000 Mexican trucks and buses to cross the border and use U.S. roadways for the next three years.

Read Bill Hanna's April 23 story on trucks in the Big Bend area here.