Georgia U.S. senators push speed-limiting devices on heavy trucks

WASHINGTON — Georgia’s U.S. senators on Thursday sent a letter to the U.S. secretary of transportation urging the implementation of a rule that would require large trucks to have devices that would cap maximum speeds.

Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, both Republican lawmakers, said that the rule, had it been enacted six years earlier when proposed, might have prevented a deadly April 22 traffic wreck involving a tractor-trailer rig that resulted in the deaths of five student nurses from Georgia Southern University, including Morgan Bass of Leesburg.

The wreck occurred when the truck, driven by John Wayne Johnson and according to reports traveling just under 70 mph, slammed into the rear of vehicles at 5:45 a.m. April 22 on Interstate Highway 16 between Stateboro and Savannah. Reports said that seven vehicles, including two carrying the students, were involved in the pileup.

“We are aware that according to your regulatory calendar, as well as in repeated hearing statements, you have committed to issuing the final rule from the Department of Transportation on electronic logging and the proposed rule on speed limiter settings for our heaviest trucks within the next few months,” Isakson and Perdue wrote in the letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The speed limiter ruling in particular has the potential to drastically decrease the number of high-speed and runaway truck accidents across the country.”

Isakson said federal officials had promised to enact the rule six years ago. Since 2011, however, Isakson and Perdue said action on the rule had been delayed 20 times. Originally expected to be published in December 2011, the target date now is just over two months away — July 27.

“It is unfortunate that we have to read about another tragedy such as the one in Georgia on the front pages of our hometown newspapers while the Department continues to delay the issuance of its rule for this common sense safety measure – originally scheduled to be released in August of 2011 – that could have reduced the violence of the crash and may have even saved the lives of these five young ladies,” the senators said.

According to the Department of Transportation, the senators said, the “speed limiter rule” would have minimal cost because all heavy trucks have these devices installed. They said the U.S. DOT also determined that the rule would decrease the estimated 1,115 fatal crashes a year that involve vehicles that weight of 13 tons or more on roads with posted speed limits of at least 55 mph.