NHTSA issues stringent new braking standards for big rigs
The new standard requires a rig traveling at 60 mph to stop in 250. The old standard was 355 feet. (Associated Press)
The Trucker News Services
7/24/2009
WASHINGTON —The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today issued stringent new braking standards that the agency said would save lives by improving large truck stopping distance by 30 percent.
The new standard requires that a tractor-trailer traveling at 60 miles per hour come to a complete stop in 250 feet.
The old standard required a complete stop within 355 feet.
NHTSA estimates that the new braking requirement will save 227 lives annually, and will also prevent 300 serious injuries. It is estimated to reduce property damage costs by over $169 million annually.
“Safety is our highest priority,” Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said. “Motorists deserve to know they are sharing the road with large trucks that are up to the safest possible standards, so they can get home alive to their families.”
The new regulation will be phased in over four years beginning with 2012 models. Models built using the old standards will not be required to retrofit the vehicles to meet the new standards, a NHTSA spokesman said.
“While our engineers and safety experts have not had time to study all 145 pages of the rule, I can say that the rule is generally in line with what we were expecting. It will improve highway safety, and we support this effort,” said Clayton W. Boyce vice president of public affairs and press secretary of the American Trucking Associations.
“It is ambitious,” he added, “NHTSA was seeking a 20 percent to 30 percent reduction in stopping distance and this rule targets 30 percent. It appears that this improvement can be made with technology that is now available to truck manufacturers. We had a concern that a rule might seek a goal that was unattainable with current technology, which would have meant that the OEMs would have had to develop and deploy an unproven solution.”
The new rule should speed up the introduction of the latest brake technology into America’s freight hauling fleets and will help truck drivers avoid collisions with other vehicles.
The new rule applies only to truck tractors, and does not include single-unit trucks, trailers and buses.
The latest statistics from NHTSA show that large commercial vehicles continue to show a decrease in their involvement in fatal crashes. In 2008, 4,229 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks, down 12 percent from the 4,822 deaths recorded in 2007.
To read the final rule, click here.
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