Highway Watch Program Gets $19.3 Million In Federal Funds

      The Transportation Security Administration stepped up with $19.3 million to support the American Trucking Assns. Highway Watch program.
      Truck drivers are joining the ranks of "first responders" to the new totalitarian threat of international terrorism, said Admiral James Loy, deputy secretary of TSA, in announcing the cooperative agreement.
      Under a cooperative agreement between TSA and ATA, the money will be used to teach highway professionals how to avoid becoming targets for terrorists intending to turn trucks into weapons of mass destruction. The list of trainees includes truck and bus drivers, as well as highway maintenance crews and toll collectors. A secondary goal is to train drivers and others to recognize and report suspicious activity. The money also will be used to beef up the communications system now in place.
      "Every American has a role in defending the homeland from the threat of terror," said TSA Acting Administrator David M. Stone. "America's professional drivers and the stewards of our highway resources need to be prepared in the event they are the target of an attack . . . and are perfectly positioned to serve as our eyes and ears on the busiest mode of transportation in the nation."
      ATA launched Highway Watch in 1998 as a program to make truck drivers part of the highway safety solution by training them to spot potentially dangerous situations and report them properly. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the element of security was added to the Highway Watch portfolio. The aim is to enlist all the state trucking associations as coordinators of the program. To date, 24 states are signed up.
      With the federal grant, ATA said it will beef up the program's national call-in center to handle more calls, and expand the operations center that coordinates federal, state and private responses to emergencies. The Highway Informational Sharing and Analysis Center, as it is called, will use security experts to analyze information from the Highway Watch program and prepare advisories in the event of an emergency, ATA said. The center will be linked to TSA's Transportation Security Coordination Center in Herndon, Va.

—Oliver B. Patton, Washington Editor

News continued...