ATA Renews Call for Speed Limiters Requirement
ATAAmerican Trucking Associations leaders renewed their request that the Department of Transportation act quickly to issue its proposed rule requiring that electronic speed limiters on all large trucks be set no higher than 65 mph.
The joint proposal by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, scheduled to be announced July 27, is in response to petitions in 2006 from ATA and Roadsafe America seeking the requirement for the installation of speed limiting devices on heavy trucks.
“We waited patiently until the government finally said in January 2011 they would move ahead with a speed limiter mandate, but this common-sense regulation has been mired in bureaucracy for over four years now,” ATA President Bill Graves said in a statement April 20. “It is long past time for NHTSA and FMCSA to move ahead with this rule.”
Federal data show that driving too fast for conditions or over the posted speed limit was the primary reason for 18% of all fatal crashes where a large truck was deemed at fault, ATA said.
“In addition to slowing truck speeds, ATA believes in slowing down all traffic,” Graves said. “That’s why we back a national speed limit for all vehicles of 65 mph and are disturbed by the recent trend of states raising their speed limits to 70, 75, 80 or in some areas even 85 mph.”
“We limit the speeds of our trucks to 65 mph because it makes good safety sense, and as a bonus, it makes good economic sense,” said ATA Chairman Duane Long, chairman of Longistics , based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
