On March 16, PennDOT and governor’s office moved to close all the Turnpike rest stops with just fueling and convenience stores available — no food and restroom facilities, just Porta-Johns. Then on Wednesday they opened some rest areas to truckers, but still no bathrooms other than Porta-Johns. By Friday, the restrooms were opened at all 17 Turnpike service plazas.

When they were closed, I had to ask: Why? Are these men and women, who are risking their health to bring us everything, not important enough to have a clean restroom with running water? All the news reports say that we should wash our hands and be aware of hygiene, and we are making them use Porta-Johns that are to be “cleaned daily.”

Would you want to wake up from a 10-hour break and have nothing to use but a portable bathroom that someone else was probably just in? Not when there is a pandemic. And no clean running water.

If these were undocumented people in a facility on the Mexican border, people would be outraged at these conditions. Well, I was outraged, along with many other truckers and their families.

I understand in the giant field of covid-19 this is a small problem, but truck drivers are getting what you all need at all hours of the day. And there are still people who are traveling, and they need to be safe and have a clean place to go.

My husband is a lifelong trucker and deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, not treated like he doesn’t matter.

Mary Piper

Hempfield

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