Speed limiters will not make highways safer

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Dear Editor,

As a professional trucker for more than 40 years with approximately 3.5 million safe driving miles, I think the introduction of speed limiters to Ontario truckers is nothing but a sham to make the travelling public think that minister Donna Canfield is making the highways safer for them by slowing down those big, bad trucks.

Who hasn’t been out there in the left lane at 105 km/h passing a truck whose company has them already governed at 90 or 100 and had some moron in a car or even a big truck sitting 10 or 20 feet off their rear bumper with their left wheel over on the shoulder just to let you know that they have somewhere important to be and you are holding them up?

And God forbid that you stay out there long enough to give the guy you are passing a little room before you come back in, because the minute they think you’ve been out there too long and they get the chance, they will stomp on it and pass you on the right, running the risk that you may come back over and hit them in the process.

The majority of the trucks I see out there are already running at a respectable speed, even if it is a bit over the 100 km/h mark. The average car out there cruises between 115 and 140 km/h, so who is really the culprit when you talk about speed?

We are already in their way now, wait until the limiters come in and see the chaos that is going to create. Maybe in the interest of safety the minister might actually consider stiffer fines and even careless driving charges against cars and trucks that tailgate dangerously close and are more responsible for some of the wrecks out there than truck speed alone is. I will never understand how any “professional driver” believes he has his vehicle under his control when he is driving at 110 km/h and is a mere 25 feet behind another truck and talking on the CB radio.

It makes me shudder. I do not plan on retiring anytime soon, so I guess I will get to see first-hand what kind of a mess this is going to be.

Mike Piper

Owner/operator

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Truck News is Canada's leading trucking newspaper - news and information for trucking companies, owner/operators, truck drivers and logistics professionals working in the Canadian trucking industry.


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