Truck accidents are frequently caused by speeding trucks. Forcing trucks to slow down, especially in Kansas City, St. Louis and rural highways in Missouri is the aim of one bill currently pending before the Missouri General Assembly.
Introduced by House Minority Leader Paul LeVota, D-Independence, the bill would require tractor trailers to drive ten miles below the posted speed limit on rural interstates, highways, in construction zones and on freeways passing through downtown Kansas City and St. Louis.
In an interview with Land Line Magazine, LeVota’s legislative director Josh Carroll explained that the bill “is an attempt to increase safety on our roads.”
In addition to putting the brakes on speeding trucks, House Bill 1563 also proposes to limit the amount of consecutive time any motorist can be behind the wheel of a vehicle to nine hours.
Speeding, tired truck drivers are dangerous. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, a fourth of the truck drivers involved in fatal collisions had been convicted of speeding and almost 17 percent had been involved in earlier collisions. In 2006, accidents involving large trucks claimed 130 lives in Missouri and 157 in Illinois. Even though this bill would make Missouri’s roads safer, I expect that trucking industry lobbyists will fight it.
