ATA Urges Obama Administration to Cap Truck Speeds at 65 MPH

American Trucking Associations (ATA) leaders renewed their call for the Department of Transportation to move forward with a rule requiring the electronic speed limiter on all large trucks be set no higher than 65 miles per hour.

“In 2006, as part of our longstanding commitment to highway safety, ATA petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require the speed limiter on all large trucks be set in order to electronically limit their top speed to no more than 65 mph,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said.

“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,” he continued. “It is long past time for NHTSA and FMCSA to move ahead with this rule.”

According to ATA, “slowing trucks down will reduce the frequency and severity of crashes.” The group cited 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.

A speed limiter rule won’t prevent all of these crashes, but it will certainly help. “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.”

Nationally, speed is a cause or factor in nearly 30% of all fatal crashes.

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