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SPEED LIMITERS DEBATE * USA & Canada - Company drivers: Do not improve highway safety
Improving highway safety is the cornerstone argument used by groups pushing the mandatory use of speed limiters on heavy trucks in the U.S. and Canada
Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Jami Jones -November 26, 2007: -- ... The reality of life on the road in a truck with a speed limiter is anything but safer according to a survey of employee or hired drivers – commonly referred to as company drivers – conducted by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s Foundation... The Foundation sent surveys to more than 15,300 OOIDA members who identified themselves as employee or hired drivers. More than 22 percent of the surveys were returned completed, and the results weren’t surprising... The survey included information about more than 2,000 different companies that hire drivers. Of those companies, 60 percent of the drivers who responded drive for a company with speed limiters on their trucks – with more than 90 percent of those company trucks set at speeds of 68 mph and slower... The company drivers were asked to rank their concerns about the use of speed limiters. The No. 1 concern among the respondents was a lack of passing speed... The Foundation notes that the lack of passing speed and increased congestion echo the results of a study done by Steven L. Johnson, Ph.D., at the Mack-Blackwell Transportation Center at the University of Arkansas... The impact of lack of passing speed and congestion would result in what Johnson called “cluster congestion” in his study. He points out that if a truck with a 65 mph limit passes a truck with a 62 mph limit, in a 75 mph speed zone, traffic tends to experience cluster congestion... That was followed by increased congestion and a fear of being rear-ended rounding out the top three concerns...The 2005 Traffic Safety Facts released by NHTSA concluded in fatal crashes the truck is struck in the rear 2.6 times more often than the other vehicle. Rear-ends, where the passenger vehicle strikes the truck in the rear, account for nearly 12 percent of passenger vehicle fatalities, more than five times as many as those where the truck strikes the passenger vehicle... The participants in the survey are serious about their concerns, too. In fact, 60 percent of them said that their concerns about speed limiters are so great that they play a role in their consideration of working for a company... And if all things are equal between a company that uses speed limiters and a company that does not, more than 80 percent of the drivers didn’t want to work for the company that uses speed limiters on its trucks...
Labels: speed limiters
posted by Unknown @ 6:35 AM
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