Cap pondered on truck speeds
`Limiters' could be set to 105 km/h
Apr 11, 2007 04:30 AM
TESS KALINOWSKI
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
Queen's Park might be ready to consider mandatory speed limiters on trucks as one way to reduce pollution and improve road safety, according to Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
The Ontario Trucking Association has been asking the government for more than a year to require trucks to have speed limiters activated so the vehicles can't exceed 105 km/h.
The limiters are usually programmed to keep trucks at 100 km/h but have a 5-kilometre "window" that allows them to speed up for lane changes, according to the association's Doug Switzer.
"We're very supportive of the potential of speed limiters. They obviously can reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions, they can save on fossil fuel and obviously there's road safety,"Cansfield said yesterday.
But the minister stopped short of promising to make limiters the law.
"The most important thing, though, is to obey the laws as they stand now until such things are changed," she said.
Her comments came after OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino talked to reporters about studying highway speeds with an eye to lowering speed limits for truckers.
Premier Dalton McGuinty acknowledged yesterday that a reduction in truck speeds would fit with the green plan the government plans to unveil this spring. And, he said, the province is always seeking ways to make the highways safer, even though its road safety record is among the best in North America.
The trucking association says the speed limiters have already been activated on half the trucks on Ontario roads.
Making their use mandatory would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 140 kilotonnes a year and save as much as 50 million litres of fuel.
It could also reduce the severity of car-truck crashes, reduce tailgating and lessen the pressure on truck drivers to speed up deliveries.
All trucks built in the past decade have computer chips to limit their speed, Switzer said, and can be easily activated by a mechanic.