Truck Speed Limiter is a huge concern for the government. The government is actively pushing through a law that will require installing electronic truck speed limiters on all trucks over 26,000 pounds. The rule will work only for the vehicles manufactured after the law goes into effect. The regulation can be finalized after the comment period that will end on November 7^th. The speed might be limited to 60, 65 or 68 miles per hour.

The supporters of the new rule are turning to physics and saying that the slower the truck is; the less damage will occur upon crashing. A study done by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that 1044 people die every year as a result of an accident involving heavy trucks on the roads, where the speed limits are at least 55 mph.

They point out that if the speed was limited to 60 mph then about 500 lives per year would be saved since the crashes would be less serious. If the speed limit would be set at 65 mph, then over 214 lives would be saved.

The agency seemed to have done a thorough job collecting and analyzing the statistics, but did they ask the truckers? People with many years of truck driving experience believe that the government could be making a huge mistake by limiting the driving speed.  Will the new speed limit for truckers make the matters on the roads worse?

The traffic jams

Now the time has come to forget the physics and turn to logic. What will happen when one truck will try to pass another at a similar speed? The traffic jams will be unavoidable, the car drivers will be frustrated, and eventually some rules are bound to be broken.

The advantage of owning an old Truck

Truck owners will try to do their best to extend the lives of the old vehicles that don’t have an electronic truck speed limiter installed. Can it boost the cost of the used vehicles? It most certainly can. Accordingly, the sales of the new ones will go down. This approach can be rather dangerous since older and ill-conditioned trucks will be filling the roads.

The same speed limit for everyone?

While limiting the speed of trucks, the government is not even considering the same limitations for other vehicles. This can result in a reversed effect. If the truck is running slower than the rest of the vehicles on the road, it can cause a crash situation. A car with a higher speed that’s coming up behind a truck will run into its back every other time. More than 50 % of the truck-car accidents are caused by the cars, not the trucks. So will limiting the trucks really work?

The discussion is underway and the new regulation has plenty of supporters. Chris Spear, CEO of the American Trucking Associations, is fighting against the new rule.

“The various differentials in speed from what this rule proposes and what state speed limits are dangerous,” he said. ““We cannot afford to elevate risks for the motoring public with a rule that does not take into account the danger of differential speeds for cars and trucks.”

But will his efforts be enough to stop the government from making a mistake?