Connecticut Truckers Ask for Exceptions to New York I-84 Travel Ban

Connecticut grocery and fuel distributors and truckers are asking for New York's governor to relax Interstate 84 travel restrictions over the Connecticut border in New York to allow the transport of food, fuel and emergency supplies or equipment.

The Motor Transport Association of Connecticut wrote to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo Wednesday afternoon to ask for an exception to the ban for food, fuel and emergency transports.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo closed I-84 to commercial vehicles between the Connecticut border and the Pennsylvania state line. He also banned long tandem vehicles from parts of the New York State Thruway on I-90 from Interchange 32 to Interchange 24 and I-87 from Interchange 24 to the New York City line at 7 a.m.

The association complained that New York's ban on commercial vehicle travel on I-84 has "had a serious impact upon interstate commerce in the Northeast" during a storm when items like perishable foods, heating oil, diesel fuel, gasoline, medicine and sand and salt to treat roads are needed.

"Trucks have been described as the circulatory system of the economy. A truck ban on I-84 is akin to applying a tourniquet to a major artery which supplies a large organ or limb," the association wrote to Cuomo. "The longer it lasts, the worse the impact. Trucks are currently on their way to supply businesses and the citizens in the three states impacted by this ban. Shutting down a critically important corridor of commerce requires that those trucks either search for alternative routes, including local roads, or find safe areas to wait out the storm and the ban."

The association also expressed concerns about truckers finding places for the trucks to go if they are not allowed to drive on I-84 through New York.

"On a normal night, every available truck public or private parking space in Connecticut is filled," the letter to Cuomo states. "...Shutting down I-84 creates a desperate need on the part of thousands of truckers to find refuge until the ban is lifted. We don't have any place to put them and neither does the State of New York. If your state implements a ban, then it is morally and logistically imperative that safe parking for stranded trucks be provided."

As of 2:30 p.m. the commercial vehicle ban was still in effect in New York.

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