The Speed Limiter Petition was filed in 2006 and the NHTSA hasn't acted on it . There are still articles in the trucking media with ATA and Steve Owings , founder of Road Safe America pushing for speed limiters . Owings claims his son was hit in the rear while stopped in traffic . That's an outright lie . If his son stayed sitting in traffic he'd still be alive . The accident was caused by Cullum Owings swerving into the path of the truck as it came around him on the left . I saw this stated in a "New York Times" article that also said the truck driver got 30 days in jail for reckless driving , not the year or more in jail drivers at fault get when they are charged with vehicular homicide . (In the same article Owings mentions mandating speed limiters and an ATA spokesman is quoted saying speed limiters are not the answer because they increase the risk of accident ) Anyone with any question of how the accident happened can watch the "Today" show video clip from the Road Safe America. (GOOGLE SEARCH)

That Road Safe America is full of it. They "hide" behind non-profit status all the while being funded by HUGE trucking companies that have a marked interest in shutting their competition's speed down. I do NOT know which companies are funding them, but I would GUESS JB Hunt and Swift would be two players. Like I said, I am NOT accusing them, I am just using common sense as a guide to my guess. Matter of fact, I am on them now and will dig into them today to try and find out who their donors are, as I do believe by law, that they must list their "donors."

Speed limiters on ALL trucks in America would be a unmitigated DISASTER no matter what people, who don't know what they are talking about, think. WHY? It would create enormous traffic jams on the freeways and increase road rage by a staggering amount to be sure. You'll have two trucks running beside each other, at the same speeds, with ten mile long lines of cars behind them and those people will NOT be happy campers. It WILL create far more deaths than solve ANYTHING.

NOW, on the other hand, if ALL vehicles were at the same speeds, then this would be solved...but try getting the idiot politicians to tell car drivers they are going to set their cars to a certain speed...



Make no mistake...Road Safe America simply has a vendetta against truckers for personal AND financial reasons (no matter what their BS site says) and is FAR from non-profit. Non-profit my tail!

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I requested their donor list just now. If they do not reply, I will have to send them a certified letter to prove I sent it and they will have to sign or mark refused, then I can take this further. I will go down tomorrow and get it done if they don't reply...for legal reasons. I am FED up with these types of "non-profit," BS organizations.

Here is one list I found on their site:

Note: They do NOT say these companies donated, BUT they say they signed their stupid petition and I imagine they surely have donated...

Only one missing that I thought would be there is Swift, but I want a FULL list...

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What gets me is the media is still giving them attention . My local ABC affiliate recently showed a clip of Steve Owings talking about speed limiters . I fired off an e-mail showing studies by researchers proved speed limiters increase the risk off accidents . The next day I happened to be home for my restart when they called me and asked if I could meet them at a local fuel stop . They brought their remote crew and the next edition of the news they broadcast my comments and referred to the studies on their website . The July 15-31 issue of "The Trucker" has more of Ownings' lies and I just wrote to the editor disproving them . Owings says driving is the most dangerous job in the U.S. . Not even close to being true . I sent the list of the top 10 . Trucking is number 9 and not nearly as dangerous as those that top it in the list . I challenged the editor to publish a photo of Cullum Owings' wreck . The car clearly was not hit from behind . We need to expose the deception involved here . I hope many of you will respond with documented facts anytime the media gives ATA and Road Safe America exposure .

RickG, I am going to remove that infraction for the link as I see you are truly sincere (CyberGal did the right thing on it per our rules, but I asked her if it be best that we remove due to the fight coming up). I also stickied this thread. I want you to help us EXPOSE THEM! You keep on this as will I! Thanks for caring enough to put this out. I will do ALL I can to help!

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Thanks , but the spanking still smarts . . I doubt they get the speed limiter petition . NHTSA couldn't justify it . Supporters gave NO relevant or documented information to support there petition . 5,000 people die in truck accidents , blah , blah , blah . What would be relevant would be the number of accidents involving trucks going over 68 m.p.h. . ATA knows the number but hides it because the number is less than 1% of accidents . If Obama is elected and we have a Democratic cabinet ATA can hang it up . The CEO of Schneider had a real run in with Senator Defazio when he said eased immigration laws would ease the driver shortage . DeFazio told him he should raise wages because truckers used to be middle class but Lofgren was moving in the right direction if he wanted to put them in the poverty class . The lies of these organizations need to be exposed . I think it would be interesting to keep a list of the carriers above and record every time you see one of their trucks speeding or driving recklessly .

It might be a good idea to provide the TRUE information to those websites that are giving the WRONG information, and believe me, there are LOTS of them. I was going to start doing just that and after "googling" RoadSafe America, I found a website "Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog" belonging to a lawfirm repeating this mis-information. I was all set to send them an email when I noticed it was a website owned by Finch McCrainie LLP, a lawfirm that represented the Resaca Flying J and four employees in my assault/personal injury lawsuit several years ago. LOL

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Do a search on truck safety, trucking accidents, highway safety, or some other variation, and you will come up with all sorts of sites for lawyers, and others of the nature of these organizations. I remember coming across Road Safe America's site while researching a paper for college last year (I'm not in college anymore). There was another organization that really irritated me too. I can't remember their name. There are several out there.

What I'm tired of is the fact that the stats behind those accidents are always left out of the reports. In researching my paper, here is some of what I found (these are from 2005 records):

1. In fatal crashes between big trucks and cars, 68% of these crashes were the fault of the driver of the passenger car.

2. In fatal crashes between big trucks and cars where drowsiness or sleepiness is cited as a factor, the driver of the passenger vehicle is cited 94% of the time.

These stats came from FMCSA Analysis Division's report of Large Truck Crash Facts. The media portrayal and these other organizations need to actually learn and report all of the facts, not just what suits their purpose.

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The owner of Road Safe comes across as clueless.



8 miles over the limit. SINCE WHEN does VA have a 62 MPH speed limit????????????????

And 68 (his supported max) versus 70..... your son is still dead.


RickG do you have links to the pics of the wreck? I couldn't find them.

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On Road Safe America's web site there is a video showing an interview with Meredith Viera on the "Today" show . A picture of the wreck is in the video .