The American Trucking Associations is again urging the Department of Transportation to move forward with a rulemaking requiring electronic speed limiters on commercial trucks that operate on roads with posted speed limits of 55 mph or above.
DOT recently announced another delay for the joint FMCSA/NHTSA rule, prompting the ATA to push the government into moving quickly.
Ontario and Quebec became the first jurisdictions in North America to require speed limiters on trucks set at 105 km/h.
Not long , ATA also began petitioning the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require the speed limiter on all large trucks be set to no more than 65 mph.
“We waited patiently until the government finally said in January 2011 they would move ahead with a speed limiter mandate, but this commonsense regulation has been mired in bureaucracy for over four years now,” ATA president and CEO Bill Graves said in a press release . “It is long past time for NHTSA and FMCSA to move ahead with this rule.”
There is no legal deadline attached to this rulemaking, according to US trade press, as it was initiated by an administrative decision.
As ATA sees it, slowing trucks down will reduce the frequency and severity of crashes.
“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 miles per hour. These limits are reckless and are needlessly endangering millions of motorists.”
As part of its campaign, ATA is asking those participating in the discussion about speed limiters and speed limits on social media to use this hashtag: #SlowDownSaveLives.