Attention: Ohio truckers! Many lawmakers are reporting truckers are contacting them by letter and by phone calls. Please keep making the contacts. Once a week would be great.

Lawmakers need to be constantly reminded of the importance of this issue to constituents like you. It is easier for elected officials not to do something than the other way around.  So please keep bugging them.

There is something else you can do, too, that could be a tremendous help in addressing any concerns or fears the general public might have about increasing truck speed limits to the same as cars.

Julie Cirillo, former chief safety officer at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, testified in support of uniform speed limits in both the House and the Senate. She also wrote an opinion piece. Cirillo is quite likely the most knowledgeable person in America on the safety aspects of speed limits. Her word on this subject should be taken as fact. Please click on the following link to view and print her opinion piece:

www.ooida.com/call_to_action/OH_012804.htm.

It would be extremely helpful in convincing lawmakers to pass this legislation if Julie's comments were to run in newspapers across the state. Please make a copy of Julie's comments, deliver them to your local paper and ask that they run them on the opinion page. The article will educate media, the general public and lawmakers. It will also go far in countering the scare tactics being implemented by the state patrol. You can actually double the benefit of your efforts once the letter is printed in your local paper by sending a copy of it to your state lawmakers.

We are close to getting uniform speed limit legislation passed into law, but we must keep up the pressure.

On a final note, the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Bob Gibbs, has worked very hard to see HB186 become law. He is asking for feedback from constituents about how they feel about uniform speed limits. It would be great if every member would go to www.americapcs.com and take the survey. Click on "Communicate with Representative Gibbs on these issues now!" You will need to sign on to AmericaPCS to be able to participate in the survey. So, click on the "Sign Up for AmericaPCS" link. This will bring you to a page where you will enter your login and password information. Next it will take you to a login page. Enter the user name and password you just set up. Click the "login now" button. This will bring you to a page asking the question "Should truckers be allowed to go 65 mph on Ohio's interstate highways?" Click that question. You will come to an introductory statement from Rep. Gibbs. Next, click on the box "To the questions!" The question box will be on the upper left-hand side of your computer screen. The responses will appear in the middle of the page. Click on the response of your choice to highlight and click the box "Choose selected response." There are three questions.

At this time, only a few people have participated in the survey. And of those people, the majority have responded that they are "opposed to" or "have concerns" about a uniform speed limit. We want the majority of those responses to be "in favor of" a uniform speed limit.

Thanks for doing your part and helping to get this needed change in the law.