Dear Editor:

Ontario and Quebec’s mandatory speed limiter law has been the cause of much coffee shop debate. I’ve even heard some who call themselves professional drivers rant on how they are not going to abide by the new law. I will agree the law is flawed at best. I would sooner say it is a pathetic attempt by some politicians to garner favour with their constituents. We are an easy target.

The thing now that bothers me most is these ‘professionals’ spouting their ignorance to others, including new drivers, safety personnel and the motoring public. Their biggest argument is it’s not safe in the mountains. When they find themselves in a downhill situation travelling over 105 km/h they are unable to downshift. Remember the loosely used label of ‘professional’? My question to all of you using this argument is, how did you put yourself in that situation to begin with?

Any driver with even the slightest bit of intelligence should be able to learn any section of highway within a few trips. If you’ve travelled the Canadian Rockies more than once in each direction, you should have a fairly good idea based on warning signs where you are and what gear you should be in to safely navigate that particular hill.

Also if you are truly a ‘professional’ you should know the condition of your braking system. You do your daily inspections, right? If you’ve been inattentive behind the wheel and do find the truck getting away on you, you should have enough braking capability to bring the truck speed below 105 km/h allowing you to grab the gear you should have been in to begin with.

Companies have been running speed limiters on their equipment for many years now. If this was such a major cause for concern in safety departments, those who have done this voluntarily would have disabled their limiters by now. Instead more and more companies have been utilizing the technology.

For those of you angry at your company for not supporting your ignorance, please think before you speak! They are only trying to comply with the law. If a town you’ve driven through for the last 50 years decides they no longer want motorists to travel at 90 km/h through their town and lower the limit to 70 km/h, are you going to say: “Screw you! I’ve been doing it like this the past 50 years and don’t care what you say?”

If this truly is how you think, maybe you are due for a career change. If you want to initiate changes in how our politicians think about truckers, write letters to those who are in power. Truckers have always been invisible to politicians and will remain that way if all we do is rant to our safety departments and fellow drivers. Safe motoring and think before you speak. •

Ian Plett

Steinbach, Man.