Wheels of Justice

Truck speed limiters

I receive calls every day from a driver who has unfairly received a ticket for speeding. Of course I know he may be right. Of course I know law enforcement has ticket quotas, although they will deny it. Oh, they may not be re-quired to write so many tickets per day or shift, but if they fail to provide any paperwork showing they have “interfaced” with the motoring public, then their supervisor wants to know why that officer was not working.

There is now a movement afoot to address the issue of speeding on a federal level as stated by Richard Comp-ton, director of the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration, during the National Forum on Speeding held June 15-16, and by David Osiecki, ATA vice president for safety, security and operations, during a Truck Speed Control Safety discussion at the FMCSA Research & Technology Forum on Jan. 9. ATA’s primary responsibility is to effectively advocate the trucking industry’s positions before Con-gress, regulatory agencies, and the courts at the federal and state level. The groups are working together to reduce speeding by all drivers, but especially truck drivers.

One idea being considered is to require all trucks to have speed limiters—engine governors—turned on and set to a national maximum. If the idea is to establish a maximum speed limit, then they might logically consider the maximum posted speed limit in a state. Let’s just say that limit is 75 m.p.h. You could still exceed the speed limit in Ohio by 20 m.p.h. with the governed engine.

Just like Will Rogers, all I know is what I read in the newspapers. If you want your input into this issue heard, however, then contact your state and national trucking associations, the NHSTA, FMCSA, DOT and any other agency you want to know your concerns. You can be in favor of or opposed to this concept, but please make sure you take the opportunity to have your opinion known. If you do not, then I agree with my father who always told me to vote in every election. If I failed to vote, he felt I had forfeited my right to complain about what the politicians did. I agree: put up or shut up.

You can review data used in this article at: www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/

Speed_Forum_Presentations/Compton.pdf and www.statehighwaysafety.org/html/issues/ speeding.cfm

Jim C. Klepper is president of Interstate Trucker Ltd., an organization providing legal defense protection to commercial drivers. Jim is a lawyer who focuses on transportation law and the trucking industry in particular. He works to answer your legal questions about trucking and has his Commercial Drivers License.