Rep. Mike Prax and 'statistically insignificant’

I suspect that Rep. Mike Prax was just passing along something that someone told him when he claimed to the Daily News-Miner that the safety difference between 95-foot trucks and 75-foot trucks is “statistically insignificant.”

Let’s be clear. Prax would support any Kinross trucking plan. This is a political reflex out of his control, like muscle memory.

I’ve asked him to supply any statistics or anything of significance to back up his statement.

Prax is certainly wrong in claiming that Kinross has gone “above and beyond in thinking this through.”

But again, I know that Prax can’t help himself.

“The difference between 75 feet and 95 feet is statistically insignificant,” Prax told the newspaper. “They are within the federal highway safety standards for both weight and length.”

This is a version of “don’t worry, it’s legal.”

Prax is wrong about “federal highway safety standards” for weight.

The federal standard on gross vehicle truck weights for the Interstate system is 80,000 pounds. The Kinross trucks will weigh 165,000 pounds.

“Alaska is unique in that it does not have a stated gross vehicle weight limit,” the U.S. Department of Transportation says in this analysis of the 50 states.

The big issue for me is not Kinross, which has an overwhelming economic incentive to push ahead. It’s the Dunleavy administration.

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, under pressure from Dunleavy, has acted like a business partner with Kinross, ignoring or downplaying safety and maintenance questions.

The Daily News-Miner has a responsibility and opportunity here for additional coverage. The News-Miner had good coverage Sunday of the protest and the display of the Kinross mining truck at the Carlson Center. There are many follow-up stories that should be done.

The newspaper does not have the resources to cover everything. But it does have the resources to cover the most pressing community issues in detail.

There was a peaceful demonstration of about 50 people holding signs Saturday near the Kinross truck that should have been allowed to continue as it was on public property. This was in the parking lot of the Carlson Center.

The decision by Kinross, the city and the borough to say that protesters were trespassing raises obvious free speech questions. The demonstrators were threatened with arrest if they did not leave the parking lot and move to the sidewalk.

City police told members of the group that Kinross asked that the protesters be directed to leave because said it had rented the space for its truck display. There were also comments that the borough made the request to city police.

“Later, FPD Deputy Chief Richard Sweet arrived and said anyone with signs was considered a protester and would have to relocate to the sidewalk along Second Avenue in front of the Carlson Center, or they would be arrested,” the News-Miner said.

It would be one thing if anyone was creating a threat to public safety. But nothing like that happened.

There was no disturbance and no justification for the heavy-handed intervention by Kinross, the police and the borough. The community deserves an explanation and an apology.

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