May 2001
Patrol opposes higher speed limits for trucks

Since the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s inception, highway safety has been our number one concern. Recently introduced bills in the Ohio Legislature could place our highway safety at risk. The proposed bills would raise truck speed limits to 65 mph on Ohio’s interstate highways.

Currently, trucks in Ohio are not legally permitted to travel faster than 55 mph. The Patrol is concerned that a 65 mph truck speed limit will result in a higher average speed on Ohio roadways. Last year, more than 76 percent of Ohio State Highway Patrol speeding citations issued to trucks were for speeds higher than 65 mph.

Lower truck speed limits reduce the amount of traffic traveling faster than 70 mph on highways with 65 mph speed limits for cars, according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) data. Every year in Ohio, thousands of tickets are issued to truck drivers for traveling faster than 76 mph. These high-speed incidents would significantly increase with a 65 mph speed limit.

The safety issue of truck speed is a simple matter of physics. Lower speed limits for trucks are needed to make their stopping distance closer to that of lighter vehicles. With Ohio’s current 55 mph truck speed limit, the stopping distance for a truck is already greater than a football field. If the truck speed limit were raised to 65 mph, its stopping distance would be 420 feet, which is 99 feet farther than when a truck is traveling at 55 mph. A car traveling at 65 mph can stop more than 50 yards before a truck traveling at the same speed could come to a complete stop.

The stopping distance of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes. A longer stopping distance reduces a driver’s ability to avoid a crash and increases the impact intensity. This results in more serious injuries and fatalities. While a truck’s stopping distance is still significantly longer than that of a car, the lower speed limit for trucks effectively reduces the gap.

Crashes involving large trucks create major problems on our highways. Not only do they cause massive traffic tie-ups in congested areas, they put other road users at great risk. In Ohio in 1999, 224 people were killed as a result of crashes involving trucks. According to a national study done by the IIHS, when a truck and car collide in a fatal crash, 98 percent of those killed are the car occupants.

Trucks were involved in 23.5 percent of all rural Ohio interstate crashes from 1997 to 1999. Thirty-two percent of those crashes were speed related. A higher speed limit for trucks would certainly increase this number of highway crashes and fatalities in Ohio.

Ohio’s neighboring states, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky, experienced an increase in their fatal truck crashes after they raised their truck speed limit. Since the national maximum speed limit was lifted in 1996, the percentage of trucks involved in fatal crashes has increased nationally from 7.9 percent to 8.5 percent. Only Ohio, Michigan, and California have defied the national trend. These three states chose not to raise their truck speed limits and documented a decrease in fatal truck crashes since 1996.

Supporters of a higher truck speed limit argue that the lower speed limit for trucks cause a high number of interstate crashes involving cars rear-ending trucks. The most current Ohio data available shows that this type of crash accounts for less than one percent of all rural interstate crashes. In fact, in all Ohio interstate crashes involving trucks, the truck was at-fault in more than 63 percent of crashes from 1997 to 1999.

Ohio’s current truck speed limit benefits everyone on Ohio’s highways. In addition to lower rates of crashes involving trucks and shorter stopping distances, lower truck speeds allow automobile drivers to pass trucks with more ease. Several truck companies prefer a 55 mph speed limit because of better fuel efficiency and lower operating costs. These truck companies have stated they will continue to operate at 55 mph even if speed limits were increased due to the lower costs, Ohio terrain, and Ohio’s congested highways.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol continually strives to reduce the number of crashes on Ohio highways. Please join us by supporting our current speed limit to keep Ohio roadways a safe place to travel.