Truckers warn speed caps will cause crashes, jam highways

The thing is. I would argue that 90% of "high-speed" crashes involving big trucks, involve big trucks already limited to 65 MPH or slower. So, WTF?

And, as far as the other 10%, the number of crashes where truck speed leading up until the crash exceeded 65 is probably minuscule

 

umm, so I guess since it would be no different at 10 mph also. Or do you think an 80000lb truck hitting a 4000lb mass(stopped car) at 70 mph just might cause it to accelerate a bit more than if it hit it at 10 mph due to the greater force?

 

What roads are you driving on where the speed limit is 10 mph? I'm not talking about low speed crashes. Pick any number you like. There were fatalities when the limit was 55 too. My point was politicians using a ridiculous argument to play on emotions to get what they want.

Also, anyone else annoyed by those personal injury billboards with some jackwad lawyer posing with his foot on a broken tractor trailer? Those things are everywhere. There are two within 500 ft of each other heading north out of Louisville on 65. Ambulance chaser.

 

I think the point was that once a truck can drive fast enough to hit hard enough to kill whatever it hits, limiting the truck anywhere beyond that is irrelevant. Hitting a car @ 60 mph will kill the occupants. Hitting that same car @ 70 mph will kill them just as dead. So what difference does it make? Every time one of these allegedly "safe" governed trucks hit a car and kill the people inside, it shows that governing speed isn't the solution. Same with the elogs. If elogs were the answer, elog trucks wouldn't have fatigued drivers causing wrecks.

 

Just easier to target the trucks, otherwise they get unelected.
Besides the industry will bend over and take it just like the elogs and and idling issue.

 

I'm not one who supports speed limiters.

However, when someone makes a claim that someone else failed high school physics while going on to demonstrate that they are the one who has the physics wrong I just can't help myself.

 

I can see it now; 18 trucks in the right line cruising across Texas, all in the right lane...speed limit 70. They're on the floor @65...Granny Farkle in the left at about 66....20 cars behind her. That, ladies & gentlemen, will be the new definition of road rage.
Poor Granny.

 

How did I get the physics wrong, professor?

Not sure what you're arguing here, unless you're in favor of 10 mph speed limits. Yes. a truck hitting a car at 70 will be very different than hitting at 10. That's kind of the whole point of Newton's 2nd Law of Motion. The greater the speed, the greater the impact. None of which is contradictory to my statement that 65 or 70, it's still more than enough force to turn a person to strawberry jam...and the people advocating this law as a safety measure know this. Which means there's another motive they're not telling us.

Feel free to PM me if you wish. You can question my grasp of basic physics and I can question your comprehension without subjecting everyone else to it.

 

By saying there is no difference between hitting at 70 than there is at 65. Of course there's a difference. That difference could be the life of someone 2 or 3 cars ahead of the initial impact. To say that the physics proves otherwise is simply wrong.

 

They are correct in the case of an object traveling at a slower speed will have a lesser impact energy than if it were traveling at a higher speed. Only in those cases! These are the cases where the driver is asleep or otherwise unattentive and drives without slowing into a stopped object. 50,60,70, doesn't matter. The stopped object will be crushed just the same.

What they fail to realize is the impending road rage that will ensue. Truck drivers are often hard headed a-holes, will leave each other hanging out in the left lane after he moved over to let the guy onto the interstate. Now the guy in the left lane can't pass and looks like the idiot. With different states of tires the same truck will actually travel a fraction of speed above or below 65. They will take forever to try to pass and cars will rage and it'll be another reason for the world to hate truck drivers.

I am sick of lawmakers pointing to how "big and bad" trucks and their drivers are. They completely ignore idiotic moves by car drivers. I just want to make an honest living. Leave me alone already and let me do my job! If you don't want me to speed then make the fine $10,000. Trust me, I won't do it.