Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/734262
Voices 4 | Overdrive | October 2016 Rob Abbott, then-outgoing safety policy vice president of the American Trucking Associa- tions, was quoted in September's "Biggest little voice in trucking" feature story about the various groups that make up the loudest trucking critics out there – the so-called safety advocacy com- munity: "We think there's a lack of credibility there and would not want to associate with them." Abbott was talking about what he saw as the "irresponsi- ble" use of data by Citizens for Reliable And Safe Highways, Parents Against Tired Truckers, and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. A similar problem was evident, however, in conversa- tions with ATA's de facto partner in pushing a speed-limiter mandate, now under a 60-day comment period through the end of this month. Safety group Road Safe America's Steve Owings, as a general rule, has garnered a reputation for fairness among the trucking community. But Owings made note of what he called a recent "study" of crash reductions as a result of Ontario's speed-limiter mandate, offering to send Overdrive the report and expressing amazement that "it hasn't come out." It turned out not to be a study, but simply a link to a post on TheCar- Connection.com, whose headline implied causality in a crash reduction that coincided with the first year that speed limiters were mandated in Ontario. It took off from a National Public Radio story that said: "In On- tario, the number of fatalities caused by heavy truck accidents dropped 24 percent in the first year of the speed-limiter mandate." What both sources failed to men- tion, however, was that the first year the speed-limiter mandate in Ontario was in effect, 2009, also happened to be when the global economy took its biggest nosedive since the Great Depression, reducing truck miles significantly. The United States, with no speed limiter law, saw a similar reduction in truck-related fatalities. Using Ontario's experience as an argument for speed limiters is irresponsible, noted reader Bob Walker, commenting under an analysis at OverdriveOnline.com: "They call that just plain lying where I come from." Reader James C. Walker also post- ed under the analysis as a member of the National Motorists Association. NMA joined the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in opposition to a speed-limiter mandate. The proposal "has nothing whatever to do with safety," he noted. "The goal is to increase the competi- tiveness of the big trucking firms with the independent truckers and small trucking firms that are both more ef- ficient and have better safety records than the big companies." "Speeding by trucks is a non-issue," noted reader Tim Begle in underscor- ing the most selected response to the poll item shown here, which included more than 3,500 responses. Running "too fast for conditions is" an issue, he added, but "no speed limiter can fix that." The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's annual Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts report shows that between 2011 and 2013, around 80 percent of truck-related fatalities occurred on roads with speed limits of 65 or below. Honk if you smell hogwash Speed limiter credit where credit's not due 4,000 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 200 150 100 50 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Ontario truck-involved crash fatalities U.S. combination truck-involved crash fatalities Trends in truck-involved fatalities are similar in Ontario and the United States, casting doubt on the idea that speed limiters caused Ontario's 2009 decline in fatalities.