Events, drive keep DOT chief in the spotlight

0 Comments | USA TODAY, February, 2008 | by Marilyn Adams

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters doesn't hesitate when asked her worst day in office. She was home in her native Arizona last Aug. 1 when she got the jarring phone call from Washington.

The eight-lane Interstate 35 bridge near downtown Minneapolis had collapsed, hurtling cars, drivers and passengers into the Mississippi River. Thirteen died; 145 were injured. News channels were broadcasting video of concrete slabs buckling and disappearing into the abyss. Overlooking the scene the next morning, she struggled to absorb the disaster.

"I was absolutely sick," she recalls. "I wondered, 'How did it fail? Will others fail?' It was crushing."

As Cabinet positions go, running the Department of Transportation typically is not a...