Feds want to restrict speeds of rigs but there’s resistance
WASHINGTON » With the number of truck crashes continuing to rise, federal transportation officials are moving ahead with efforts to limit how fast tractortrailers and other heavy trucks can traverse the nation’s highways.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced it would begin developing a rule requiring trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds to install and use devices limiting their speeds to a maximum of 68 miles per hour.
That’s almost four decades after the National Transportation Safety Board first recommended such technology in 1995. Speed limiting devices are on the NTSB’s current list of most wanted safety improvements.
“There seems to be some hope that we’re finally going to see that,” said Steve Owings, who co-founded Road Safe America after his son Cullum died in 2002 when a speeding truck smashed into his car that was stopped due to heavy traffic on Interstate 81 in Virginia.
Several trucking companies and organizations support speed limiters, including the Alliance for Driver Safety & Security, a group of the nation’s largest truckers. About 98% of Trucking Alliance members’ 62,000 trucks use the devices, said Steve Williams, CEO of Maverick USA and president of the group.
“Everybody needs to slow down and allowing FMCSA to pursue its rulemaking is the right thing to do,” he said.
But the effort has run into trouble on Capitol Hill, where House Republican legislation funding transportation programs for the next 12 months would prevent federal agencies from adopting a new rule. And legislation to prevent the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from acting has been introduced in both the House and Senate.
Also pushing back against any new rules is the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which spent $1.4 million on lobbying last year, behind only the $2.2 million spent by the American Trucking Associations.
“It’s been proven time and time again traffic is safest when they’re all moving the same speed,” said Lewie Pugh, the association’s executive vice president.
The new rule is a long time coming. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration first announced in March 2011 that they would consider requiring speed limiting devices in large trucks. They proposed a rule in August 2016.
Then nothing happened until April 2022, when FMCSA said it would move on its own to look at requiring speed limiting systems in trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds.
That came after the U.S. Department of Transportation outlined a roadway safety strategy that January to reduce deaths and serious injuries in highway crashes. The strategy, funded in part with money from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, called for new technology, adjusted speed limits, changes in road design and signage, and improved crash responses from medical personnel.