Finally something may be done to slow down these monsters of the highway. I don’t know about you, but driving on the highways with the big rigs terrifies me. When I see one come up quickly behind me and hang a few inches off my rear bumper I get out of the way in a nanosecond. I know fully well that they need much more stopping distance than a car and if I was to come to a sudden stop there would be no way that a big rig that was tailgating could possibly stop. Studies show that speed has a direct correlation with the severity of injuries in a vehicle crash. Therefore if you reduce the speed of a large truck, the impact of the collision will be greatly reduced. Since November 1, 2007 there have been 31,350 car and truck collisions in Ontario. That is 2,000 more collisions than in the same period 1 year ago. And that’s a frightening statistic.

Transportation Minister Jim Bradley introduced legislation that would require large trucks on Ontario roads to use speed limiters which are built-in microchips that can preset a truck’s top speed. It is proposed that the preset top speed for the big rigs would be 105 kilometres/hour. This would apply to all trucks built after 1995. It doesn’t matter where the truck comes from. As long as it is on an Ontario highway, it would be required to be fitted with a speed limiter. However the government would allow a 6 month introduction period before the limit goes into effect. The Ontario Trucking Association reports that more than 50% of Ontario big rigs are already voluntarily using speed limiters, and that most large trucks built in the last 10 years are already equipped with them.

I would certainly feel safer if the big rigs were limited to a speed of 105 kms/hour. Wouldn’t you?