
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 1, 1992                   TAG: 9203020218
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: E-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROADS DESIGNED FOR HIGH SPEEDS

THE EDITORIAL Feb. 6, "Brake the trucker bill," is certainly one-sided against trucks. During the 13 years after 1974, the year of the so-called fuel crisis, the vast majority of all drivers exceeded the 55-mph limit. I can tell you from 30 years of driving that the average speed of all cars and many trucks during that time was 63 to 60 mph nationwide, not just in Virginia.

That is the speed cars and today's trucks are designed to travel. That is a speed the highways are designed to safely handle. All states that have increased their speed limits to 65 for all vehicles, including West Virginia and North Carolina, have not experienced any more accidents per mile traveled than Virginia.

You mention 11,071 truck-related crashes on all Virginia roads, with 138 fatalities in 1990. Truck-related would include pickup trucks, vans, six-wheel trucks, 10-wheel trucks, etc. Truck-related does not mean that the truck was at fault.

I will not try to defend each and every driver of all trucks. I drive an 18-wheeler and I have seem some of these drivers tailgate, etc.

I spent eight years in law enforcement at the State Police level. I found truckers the most careful and safe drivers on the road. The trucker was the one police could count on to help at accidents and to be the first one on the scene. The truckers reported many DUI drivers.

The details of most laws are set by trained and knowledgeable people in their field of expertise. Speed laws are not set by engineers. They are set by legislators who have no more, if not less, knowledge of highway conditions than I as to a safe and reasonable speed. HARLAN P. MASON CATAWBA

by CNB