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Would we be affected?
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Yet another government intrusion into our lives. The vast majority of truck/car crashes are caused by the car. The rate of accidents for trucks has been going down for years, but the idiots at the DOT and other agencies think that they need to “fix” the truck and it’s driver to avoid accidents. I have no issue with a ban on commercial drivers who get violations and have accidents.
The speed limits in most states are within the rating for the tires commonly found on trucks. I don’t advocate for trucks running 75-80 or faster, but 60 is going to do nothing but hurt the drivers and companies. The hours of service are a joke, and adding extra hours to complete each trip is going to do nothing but aggravate the problem.
As to our coaches, I don’t ever exceed the rating of the tires, but I do drive faster than Jon does…
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Passenger vehicles are next. If this goes through it’s only a matter of time before all new vehicles will have a road speed governor.
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What short memories we have. Rememvber when the Federal Speed Limit was reduced to 55 mph. There were more accidents due to drivers not paying attention due to driving so slow. The Feds need to retake history class.
For the DDEC engine coaches ther is already a speed limit setting in the computer. It is set to off or 85 on all the coaches I have put on the computer.
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Data is something that most law makers dont understand.
As the article points out, 33% (ye, that’s what 1/3 is) of all vehicle accidents had speeding as a factor, while for vehicles that they are looking at limiting to 60mph only saw 23% of accidents having speeding as a factor. So a group of vehicles/drivers who have a much higher safety rating need to be restricted to make them safer?
On top of that, I am sure that vehicles being produced today are designed to produce maximum fuel economy at a set speed based on engine/transmission/final drive ratio/etc. So now the federal government wants to change a variable of this, which will potentially increase fossil fuel use and increase green house gases.
Add to that that professional drivers who get paid by the mile, will now see a reduction in their paycheck due to needing to take longer to go further. Just like increasing the minimum wage for your local fry cook will increase the cost of goods at the fastfood joint, this will increase the cost of EVERYTHING transported as professional driver unions will certainly push for an increase in pay per mile to offset the loss in income due to less miles over a set period of time. That increase in cost of goods will be past on to the consumer, basic econimics.
But hey, look over there! Is that free phone and better health insurance with a $25000 a year savings!
People just eat this stuff up because some elected official says it’s going to make their life safer. People are ignorant at best and foolish at worst 🙁
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Like I said…
Anyway, point taken. If only 23% of truck and bus accidents involve speeding, I guess we shouldn’t do anything to prevent speeding.
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Professional drivers unions are a thing of the past except for some of the LTL carriers. One thing for sure, if a driver is on mileage, the speed limit reduction will be a paycheck killer for him and the company as Mark pointed out due to hours of service BS.
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I see this as another nanny state attempt to regulate under the guise of “SAFETY”. There have always been accidents, and there always will be. Nothing that the politicians do will ever prevent stupid people from doing stupid things.
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The CBS Evening News aired this story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/feds-propose-speed-limiting-devices-on-trucks-and-buses/
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23% of accidents “involved” speeding isn’t the same thing as 23% of accidents are DUE to the speeding.
You really have to be fully thought out about stats like that. They can easily misrepresent reality.
A LOT of people speed. You’d be hard pressed find many accidents that didn’t involve speeding. But – that doesn’t mean it was nessesarily because of it.
In CA we already have the 55 limit for big rigs. On the 5 to LA trucks are supposed to go 55. Car limit is 70. But – cars go 80 to 90. In my van, I want to go the speed limit. But that means I have to try to get back in the left lane to pass often. And the cars do everything they can to block you. And thy are going FAST past you making it real hard to travel at the speed limit. You basically get behind a truck then have to slow and wait tor a hole. Then pull out and pass then back in the right and get blocked again. This happens all the way to LA from SF.
OR you just go 70 in the left (legal here as is passing in the right) but then the cars just go 80 in the right coming up on the trucks going 55-60. They then shoot the gap back into the left nearly causing accidents at least 5 times a trip. Hell they made a volkswagon commercial featuring just that move – and how the peppy Volkswagon can do it.
Its its so bad on our way back from Jeffs in TN we were doing fine through AZ then – as we hit the CA line TRAFFIC and cars weaving in and out of the lanes. We had the mash the brakes quite a few times and then we just slowed to 60 and marked it down as just another example of nanny laws that have a good ring to them – but in practice do more harm than good.
I believe the speed differential is the cause of a lot of close calls and accidents. Today the trucks push it and make the differential less. Governed they won’t be able to – and the cars will keep going 80-90. The accidents will go up. You can bet on it
Even the commercial written test here in CA has a test question about it being the safest for all traffic to be going the same speed! A test question! And we have the truck speeding limit 15mph less. Bueracracy at its finest
In CA when we went from federal 55 limit to 70. The head of the CHP went onTV to say after 1 year the increase in speed led to fewer accidents – against all the dire warnings of the nannies.
I agree though… Get ready. They’re going to do it. Ugh. They already banned diesels. Just wait – they will ban the RV ones too and half of us won’t be able to drive XL’s in CA.
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