Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/734262
October 2016 | Overdrive | 29 A comprehensive DOT study issued in 2012 seems to back up these claims. On an annual basis, trucks without limit- ers had 16.4 crashes per 100 trucks ver- sus 11 crashes per 100 trucks for trucks equipped with limiters. The report covered more than 150,000 trucks that had more than 28,000 crashes during 2007-09. The study also noted that speed-relat- ed crashes for trucks with speed limiters averaged 1.4 crashes per 100 trucks per year. For carriers not using the devices, the rate was more than three times as high – 5 crashes per 100 trucks per year. DOT's proposed rule also quantified the annual safety benefits of limiters. Its analysis claims a 60 mph limit would prevent between 162 and 498 deaths, a 65 mph limit would see 63 to 214 deaths prevented, and a 68 mph limit would save 27 to 96 lives. All three speeds would prevent thousands of injuries a year, DOT says. By DOT's calculation, tractor-trailers limited to 60 mph would save between $2,500 and $6,100 a year on fuel. At 65 mph, that falls to $1,400 to $3,000, and at 68 mph, $640 to $1,400. OOIDA, the de-facto leader of the anti-limiter pushback, has largely ignored the fuel economy point, but strongly challenges the safety claims. "Highways are safest when all vehicles travel at the same relative speed," said OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer. "This wisdom has always been true and has not ever changed." An OOIDA analysis from 2015 showed that over a 12-month period, the crash rate was 71 percent higher for eight large-fleet truckload carriers overall (9.5 per 100 power units) than for one- truck carriers (5.6), among other data points. The large fleets typically operat- ed with speed limiters, the independent owner-operators most often without. OOIDA also points to 2003 testi- mony from FMCSA's Julie Anna Cirillo, who warned a Senate committee that a speed limit differential is always unsafe: "Traffic operating at or about the same speed, regardless of speed limit, is the safest traffic environment. Jurisdictions should do whatever they can to encour- age this operating scenario and should never require the opposite." Cirillo said she focused much of her career on studying speed limits, crashes and speed differentials. She worked for DOT for 34 years, including time as FMCSA's chief safety officer and acting administrator. Cirillo told lawmakers that limiting truck speeds could push more trucks off the Interstate system and onto other highways to avoid unsafe differential speed limits. "If this occurs, the jurisdic- tion will experience much higher acci- dent rates because of the inherent safety of the Interstate system. It is essential to remember that most accidents occur on non-freeway facilities." OOIDA also stands behind a review of state-to-state variations in crashes per- formed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2014. The report shows that in two-vehicle fatal In 2006, the American Trucking As- sociations and safety lobbyist Road Safe America filed separate petitions asking the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to imple- ment a speed limiter mandate for the trucking industry. It wasn't until last month that the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking made its way through the regulatory process and got published. Even after a decade, specifics, including a limited speed, were sparse. At best, a final rule will take months, more likely years, to develop, and the U.S. Department of Transportation calls for a three-year implementation period in the NPRM. So even if the mandate makes steady progress, it's unlikely to take effect until 2020 at the earliest. Also, since the NPRM was so bare bones, a second and more fleshed out proposal could be issued as a Supple- mental NPRM, which would come with another public comment period. Such a scenario would push implementation into the 2020s. RULE A LONG TIME COMING, LONG TIME TO GO Advocates of the speed limiter mandate argue that not only would highways be safer if truck speeds were limited, but slower speeds also would reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.