If the American Trucking Associations (ATA) has its way, large trucks will soon be rolling off the assembly line with built-in speed governors. The ATA has petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to limit the maximum speed of large trucks to no more than 68 miles per hour by installing speed governing devices at the point of manufacture.
In a press release, the ATA charged that the federal government's lack of focus on speed in crashes involving large trucks represented a significant gap in its truck safety strategy. Though most of the funding in the federal truck safety budget is directed toward ensuring equipment is safe, minimizing driver fatigue and preventing impaired driving, the association said, that doesn't get at the root cause of most accidents involving large trucks: speed.
