Petition Filed to Make Highways Safer
Last January 26, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that a petition to limit the speed of trucks was filed by Road Safe America. The said petition will be open for public comments until the 27th of March this year. The thought-out regulation will directly affect trucks which weigh more than 26,000 pounds, and manufactured after 1990. The proposed law will enforce the use of electric speed governors to limit truck speeds up to 68 miles per hour only. The reason why those trucks manufactured after 1990 are affected by this proposed regulation is that in 1991, speed governors became standard equipment for large trucks.
Road Safe America spearheaded the said drive for traffic safety to decrease the number of collisions between large trucks and passenger vehicles. Steve Owings, co-founder of the Atlanta-based organization said that “80 miles per hour commercial truck has no place in our highways”. They are also calling for public support on the said initiative. Owings urge the public to “support this lifesaving regulation by filing their comments with the U.S. Department of Tourism immediately”. Filling comments is facilitated by the organization through their website www.roadsafeamerica.org. “The docketing of this proposed rule offers a rare opportunity for all Americans to make their voices heard and save lives on our highways”, Owings added further.
Joining forces with Road Safe America are ten motor carriers equally concerned for traffic safety. These are: Schneider National Inc., C.R. England Inc., H.O. Wolding Inc., ATS Intermodal LLC, Dart Transit Company, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., U.S. Xpress Inc., Covenant Transport Inc., Jet Express Inc., and Dupré Transport LLC. The proposed regulation backed by this lineup of motor carriers was originally filed last year. Support for the cause is already coming in evident on the letter of support submitted by Bill Graves, President and CEO of the American Trucking Association. Aside from this, the petitioners are also counting on the support of the ordinary people who face the hazard of driving on highways with super fast trucks akin to the speed of a Volvo starter .
The effort is justified by Owings in his statement in connection with the filing of the petition. “It is shameful that people in this country must live in fear when using the very highways they pay for with their own tax dollars. Restricting trucks to 68 miles per hour is a way Americans can stand up and say ‘we’re not going to be afraid anymore’. It’s time to be heard and I hope everyone who understands the urgency of this critical issue will let our government know that it’s essential to slow speeding trucks down-and do it now.” Owings should know what hazards these super fast trucks pose to the public. He himself tragically lost a son when a speeding truck rear-ended the car his son is driving. That is why; Owings co-founded Road Safe America to spare other parents the grief that he suffered caused by the absence of regulation that will slow down trucks.
The use of speed governors is a good step in the reduction of speeds of trucks on open highways. Without this, trucks can attain dangerously high speeds which make it almost impossible to stop in cases of emergency. Speed governors can limit a vehicle’s speed which increases the chance that a vehicle can stop safely in the event of emergencies. Aside from this, Road Safe America will also educate passenger car drivers since they are also responsible for some accidents involving trucks. The organization will try to instruct them how to safely share the road with the much bigger and faster trucks.
Glady Reign is a 32 year old is a consultant for an automotive firm based in Detroit, Mi. she is a native of the Motor City and grew up around cars hence her expertise in the automotive field.
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