Senate safety bill shifts responsibility to container owners

Senate safety bill shifts responsibility to container owners    A bill introduced in the Senate would make container owners, including those who are shipowners, responsible for compliance with highway safety standards while an intermodal container travels on U.S. roads.
      Sen. Ben Campbell, R-Colo., has introduced the Intermodal Equipment Safety and Responsibility Act of 2003 (S. 1776), which would make container owners responsible for compliance with federal, state and local highway safety regulations.
   The bill allows inspectors from the office of the Secretary of Transportation to “enter any facility of a controller of intermodal equipment interchanged for use on a public highway.”
   Equipment that does not comply with safety laws will be “placed out of service” until repaired, the bill noted.
   Those entities responsible for a container’s intermodal safety include “any party that has any legal right, title or interest in the equipment,” the bill stated.