Protesters block traffic on the fourth straight day of protests against the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer during COVID-19 pandemic May 30, 2020.
When social unrest spills out onto the highway, truckers are put in a precarious position: wait out an ocean of protesters or, if it turns violent, force an 80,000 pound rig through the mass and out of harm's way.
The latter comes with potentially serious legal ramifications, leading some carriers to think the law favors those who have no business trying to stop traffic with their bodies and picket signs.
Peninsula Truck Lines has seen plenty on the roads and highways in the Northwest since 1951 and when it comes to violent protestors heading out onto the region’s roads and highways they think demonstrators are getting a pass.
“I would say very much so,” said Peninsula Truck Lines President Brent Vander Pol.
Sheri Call, executive vice president of Washington Trucking Associations, said more could be done to protect drivers, especially when they're outnumbered some times several hundred to one.
