Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Inc.

National Headquarters:  OOIDA Building, I-70 at Grain Valley Exit
1 NW OOIDA Drive, P.O. Box 1000, Grain Valley, MO  64029
Tel:  (816) 229-5791  Fax:  (816) 427-4468
Email:  todd_spencer@ooida.com
web site:  www.ooida.com

February 2, 2005

Dear Senator:

The purpose of this letter is to share with you the concerns of members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) in regard to your consideration of changes in state laws on speed limits, specifically bill number SB217.

The OOIDA is the national association representing the interests and views of small business truckers on all aspects of their business. OOIDA has over 120,000 members nationwide and nearly 4200 members in Indiana. Our members are men and women that drive trucks in Indiana and many other states.  They drive more than 110,000 miles each year in every kind of terrain and weather condition to deliver needed goods to all Americans.  Driving trucks is their business and their profession. These men and women have a sincere and a genuine interest in highway safety. Not only are they at risk from injury or death from a traffic accident, but their financial solvency as a small business is also on the line each day.

Speed variances have long been recognized by highway engineers as a greater contributor to accidents than is speed itself. OOIDA members believe that any speed limit variance between trucks and cars would not make Indiana highways safer. In fact, such a speed variance would make Indiana highways inherently unsafe. Available safety data supports this conclusion.

Julia Anna Cirillo, former Deputy Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), studied the effects of differential speed limits. Her research states, "speed limits that set lower limits for trucks versus passenger cars increase the spread of travel speeds (variance) in the traffic stream, and thus increase conflicts as faster moving vehicles overtake slower moving vehicles."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cars run into the backs of trucks far more often than the other way around. OOIDA believes that differential speed limits are a factor in many of these accidents.

This conclusion is supported by analysis of over 8000 fatal crashes by the U.S. DOT's Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety (OMCHS) working in conjunction with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

That study states:

"Reviewing the driver-related factors alone indicates that passenger vehicles drivers contributed disproportionately to fatal crashes involving a large truck and a passenger vehicle. In 8,309 fatal crashes, truck drivers were not coded with any driver-related crash factors in 73 percent of the crashes. In contrast, only 18 percent of the passenger vehicle drivers were not coded with a driver-related factor."

Of particular important to the discussion of split speed limits and speed variance is what accident investigators find in rear-end accidents:

"Rear-End Crashes:  In rear-end fatal crashes in the study, the passenger vehicle was the striking vehicle almost four times as often as the large truck."

This accident experience shows every year that cars run into the backs of trucks far more often than the other way around. These accidents occur because car drivers often do not anticipate a truck will be driving significantly slower than they are. Whether it is a truck, or a car, or a horse-drawn buggy, speed variances are more of a factor in accident causation than is speeding.

On two separate occasions, traffic studies conducted by the University of Virginia's Department of Civil Engineering concluded "there is no safety benefit from differential truck/car speeds limits, and there is evidence that different speed limits for trucks and cars may actually result in higher rates of certain kinds of accidents, such as rear-enders and sideswipes."

The University of Texas at Austin has also looked at the effects of truck speed versus accident involvement. Those researchers concluded that the greater the differential in speeds, the more likely there will be an accident. They found a differential of as little as 5 miles per hour nearly doubles the likelihood of an accident.

Our organization takes no position on what maximum speed limits should be in any state, but we do believe that speed limits should be established to promote maximum voluntary compliance. In this area, OOIDA concurs with the statements of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) resolution where they state "speed limits set arbitrarily below the reasonable and prudent speed perceived by the public are difficult to enforce, produce noncompliance, encourage disrespect for the law, create unnecessary antagonism toward law enforcement officers, and divert traffic to lesser routes." This resolution was delivered to Congress, the National Governors' Association, and the Federal Highway Administration in 1993 when lawmakers were debating whether speed limit decisions should be made in state capitols or Washington, D.C. We believe state lawmakers are in the better position to set appropriate speed limits than lawmakers! in Washington, D.C.

On behalf of small business truckers in Indiana and the many thousands more that pass through the state each day, I hope you will vote to reject any legislation that will provide split speed limits for cars and trucks. Uniform speed limits will make Indiana highways safer for all highway users.

If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. We would be happy to provide you with any of the research or documentation discussed in this letter.

Sincerely,

Todd Spencer,
Executive Vice President