IN PHYSICS we learn that momentum = mass x velocity. On our roads, we discover the practical application: The heavier the vehicle and/or the faster it's going, the more momentum it has, and, therefore, the more damage it does when an accident occurs. That's why big trucks ought to carry more weight when it comes to fines for speeding.
Unsafe speed is a factor in a third of all highway crashes. To be fair, when a truck is the "core cause" of an accident, traveling too fast is found to be the "critical precrash event" just 18 percent of the time. However, when an 80,000-lb. semi collides with a 3,000-lb. Toyota Prius, it's clear which vehicle is going to take the hit.
In fact, 5,000 people die and 130,000 are injured every year in truck accidents. When big rigs and cars clash, 98 percent of the fatalities are in the lighter vehicles.
Trucks require about three times the stopping distance of cars. That makes the decision to speed by truck drivers all the more dangerous. To put the momentum of a big rig in perspective, Road Safe America points out that for an average car to equal the force of an 80,000-lb. tractor-trailer going 60 mph, the car would have to be screaming along at over 300 mph.
Virginia law is in some respects tough on commercial driver's-license holders. CDL holders who get a speeding ticket while driving their personal vehicles off the job can have their CDL restricted or even lifted. And CDL holders get more points on their license than regular drivers for the same offenses.
So why not extend this principle to speeding fines? If the consequence of traveling too fast was related to the weight of the vehicle, truckers might think twice about hurtling down the road above the legal limit.
Interestingly, the American Transportation Research Institute found a correlation between truck drivers who speed and accidents: Fifty-six percent of truckers convicted of going 15 mph or more above the speed limit were involved in a truck crash within a year of that conviction.
The ATRI and Road Safe America would like to see mandatory governors on trucks that would hold their speed to 68 mph. Although truckers would no doubt protest, that would be one way to deal with the problem.
Another would be to slap 'em hard with fines proportional to their gross vehicle weight, which is usually printed right on the truck. Speeding big rigs must get the message: The heavier you are, the more responsibility you have to control your vehicle. So slow down.
Tomorrow: Following too closely