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OTA Calls for Speed Limiters on Truck Engines
Enforcement, Environment and Safety Groups and Media Lend their Support

(TORONTO, Nov. 29, 2005) – The Ontario Trucking Association held a Nov. 16 press conference calling on the Ontario government to mandate speed limiters on truck engines, so as to limit all trucks that operate within and through Ontario to a 105 kph maximum.

The press conference took place on the heels of OTA’s Annual General Meeting where the initiative, which had already received the go ahead by the association’s 80-plus board of directors, gained the unanimous support of members at large in attendance.

“This initiative is based on common sense,” says OTA President David Bradley. “Anyone who takes the few minutes it takes to actually read the policy will see that it makes a great deal of sense and is based on sound principles.” (Scroll further below for complete policy text).

The OTA announcement gained the support of safety and environmental groups and professionals, many of whom spoke in support of the initiative at the press conference.

Those who came out to speak in favour of the initiative were Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Cam Woolley, Canada Safety Council President Emile Therrien, Pollution Probe Senior Scientist and Director Dr. Quentin Chiotti, and the Canadian Automobile Association’s Kris Barnier.

Other groups provided letters of support for the initiative including: the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, Old Republic Insurance Company of Canada, Markel, Road Watch Ontario, and the Transportation Health and Safety Association of Ontario and SMARTRISK.

Since the initial announcement, which garnered much media fanfare, broad based interest and support continues to be gained. Follow this link to read a recent editorial published by the Windsor Star about OTA’s policy: http://www.ontruck.org/news/news/2005/pnews_2005_11_29_140157_rt.php3

OTA has met with senior officials within government to discuss this initiative and have received a generally positive response yet no firm commitment has been made.

For more information on the initiative, follow this link: http://www.ontruck.org/speedlimiters/

OTA POLICY: Speed Limitation & Lane Discipline

  1. It should be a mandatory requirement under the Highway Traffic Act, that speed limiters are activated on all prescribed trucks that operate into, out of and within the Province of Ontario at the prescribed maximum speed within 12 months of proclamation.
  2. Speed limiters for trucks should be set at NO MORE THAN 105 kph (65 mph).
  3. The law will be applicable to both straight trucks and tractor-trailer combinations built after 1995 that have a manufacturer’s rating or a registered GVW >11,000 kg.
  4. All prescribed vehicles manufactured after 1995, must comply by having speed limiters activated or reset to no more than 105 kph. All new trucks must come from the manufacturer with the speed limiters set at no more than 105 kph.
  5. Dealers, repair shops and carriers would have the ability to adjust the maximum speed limit setting on a truck so long as it is no more than 105 kph. But it would be a legal requirement for engine manufacturers to “hard code” the maximum speed setting on all trucks so that no person would be able to set an upper limit on speed that exceeds 105 kph.
  6. It shall be an offence for the prescribed trucks to have a speed limiter set above 105 kph. Penalties for non-compliance should include fines, suspensions and revocation of repair shop licences. These penalties shall be imposed on the person or persons who tamper with and either de-activate or set at a maximum speed above 105 kph. Engine manufacturers shall be compelled to provide the information to enforcement officials in order to make this determination, regardless of where the tampering occurred. A finding that a speed limiter on a truck has been tampered with shall be made by enforcement officers by use of hand-held PDA’s that allow them to read where the speed limiter on a truck is set from the engine’s ECM while locking out the downloading of other information.
  7. On-road speed enforcement by police officers will still be required to ensure compliance (1) on roads and highways where the maximum posted speed is less than 100 kph, since speed limiters presently can only be set to one maximum speed; and (2) on highways where the maximum posted speed is 100 kph or more but a truck is still for whatever reason operating at excessive speed. In these cases the driver should be charged and the violation should appear exclusively on the driver’s abstract. Since there will be fewer speeding trucks as a result of the mandatory activation of speed limiters, any truck exceeding the maximum prescribed speed limit should clearly stand out, and it will therefore be expected that on-highway police agencies will enforce the law in those remaining situations.
  8. Similarly, it is further anticipated that lane discipline by trucks will improve as a by-product of the mandatory activation of speed limiters, again increasing the expectation that police services will be better able to deal with the remaining transgressions of the laws pertaining to lane discipline.
  9. All new truck drivers should receive training with regard to the benefits of enhanced speed control and lane discipline.
  10. Measures to increase compliance with maximum speed limits by cars and how to safely share the road with trucks (enforcement, training, testing and licencing) need to be improved and/or introduced.
  11. OTA would like to see the policy on speed limitation and lane discipline endorsed and adopted in all other Canadian jurisdictions as well as in the United States.
  12. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation should review whether it makes sense to raise the maximum speed limit to 100 kph on certain divided highways in the province where the maximum speed limit is presently 80 kph, or 90 kph.

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