Speed limiter debate starts anew with new bill controlling heavy trucks

The latest issue in trucking is actually a renewal of a 15-year-plus battle against truckers who go too fast. It pits safety advocates and large trucking interests on one side against owner-operators, who would be pinched financially because they are paid by the mile.  

Reps. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., and John Katko, R-N.Y., have introduced a bipartisan measure to limit the speed of heavy trucks and support efforts to improve safety, enhance fuel efficiency and reduce the occurrence of often-fatal truck crashes.

The Cullum Owings Large Truck Safe Operating Speed Act would codify into law a “speed limiter” rule that’s been under consideration for more than a decade.

The bill is named for 22-year-old Atlanta resident Cullum Owings, who was killed in a car-truck collision in 2002 while returning to college. The legislation was long-championed by former Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson. It is endorsed by the Truckload Carriers Association, the Trucking Alliance, AAA, the Institute for Safer Trucking, Road Safe America and the Safe Operating Speed Alliance.

“Millions of motorists are within a few feet of 80,000-pound tractor trailer rigs each day and there is no reason why that equipment should be driven at 75 or 80 or 85 miles per hour,” said Steve Williams, chairman and CEO of Maverick USA, Little Rock, Ark., co-founder and president of the Trucking Alliance and also a former chairman of the American Trucking Associations.

“This legislation will reduce the severity of large truck crashes and make the nation’s roadways safer for our drivers and all of us,” Williams added.

The bill faces stiff opposition in Congress. Among those against it are the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) which says speed limiters are dangerous for all highway users.

The use of speed limiters is based on what OOIDA calls “unfounded data” that will likely detract from highway safety. In actuality, OOIDA says, highways are safest when all vehicles travel at the same relative speed.

“Studies and research have already proven what we were all taught long ago in driver’s ed classes – traffic is safest when vehicles travel at the same relative speed,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a statement. “What the motoring public should know is that when they are stuck behind trucks on long stretches of highway, those trucks are limited by a device to a speed well under the posted limit. This proposal would make that the norm for every truck on the road.”

OOIDA said large carriers’ use of speed limiters is primarily for fleet management purposes – a tool single truck operators and small fleets don’t require. OOIDA sees their effort to speed limit independent truckers as nothing more than an attempt to eliminate one of the few economic advantages small-business truckers currently enjoy.

“Drivers hate speed limiters because of the operational and safety problems they create,” Spencer explained. “Large carriers would love nothing more than to ensure every truck and carrier is stuck with these devices, so their drivers stop fleeing for jobs at more trucker-friendly carriers,” Spencer added.

Others, such as Rep. McBath, disagree. The issue of speed limiters is not new in Washington. Past reports indicate the issue was first raised in 2006, but has never been enacted.

“The safety and security of our families, our friends and our loved ones is always of the utmost priority,” McBath said in a statement. “The Owings family has done so much to protect other children like Cullum and I want to thank them for all they have done. No family in America should ever have to experience the same pain of losing a loved one so needlessly. This is an important, bipartisan step to make our roadways safer, protect drivers and stop these heartbreaking crashes from happening.”

“Our lives changed forever in the worst of ways after a speeding truck driver using cruise control crashed into our son’s car, stopped in an interstate traffic jam, as he headed back to college after Thanksgiving break” said Steve Owings, Co-founder of Road Safe America.

The Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys (ATAA) is also supporting speed limiters on trucks. Driving a truck is not the same as driving a car. Speed compounds the dangers and it is beyond question that high speed is a leading cause of serious truck crashes. Keeping truck speeds at or below 65 mph (or 70 mph with use of automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control) will save lives, advocates say.

This technology is proven in many other parts of the world where it has been built into trucks since the 1990s. “We are long overdue in requiring its implementation in the USA,” said Joe Fried, a nationally recognized truck crash attorney from Atlanta and co-founder of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys.

“The Institute for Safer Trucking and our network of families of truck crash victims support this commonsense approach to requiring the use of speed limiters on our heaviest vehicles,” said Harry Adler, principal and co-founder of the Institute for Safer Trucking.

“We cannot allow unsafe companies to use speed to gain a competitive advantage over safe companies that voluntarily limit the speed of their trucks to reduce their fuel use and, more importantly, their involvement in high- speed crashes,” Adler said. “Passing this bill will help end the dangerous practice of speeding and make trucking safer for all of us.”

During 2020 over 42,000 people lost their lives on U.S. highways. According to the National Safety Council (NSC) the fatality rate increased 24%, the largest increase ever. Excess speed was a major factor, the NSC said. Large trucks are often involved in speed related crashes and their crash dynamics make it far more likely to result in serious injuries and fatalities.

The speed limiter installed in large trucks for many years can be easily programmed to limit the top operating speed, help prevent these collisions and save lives by limiting crash forces, according to Gary Catapano, co-founder of the Safe Operating Speed Alliance.

“Passing this bill will be a great first step in addressing our country’s speeding problem,” Catapano added.