Road Safe America
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Road Safe America is a non-profit safety organization founded by the parents of Culling Owen who died after his car was struck by a speeding truck December 1,2002 . A New York Times article dated November 27, 2005 tells of Steve Owings' attempts to have speed governors placed on large trucks . In the article , Mike Russel , an ATA spokesman is quoted saying the ATA supports a national speed limit of 65 m.p.h. for all vehicles . Russell goes on to state forcing trucks to drive slower than other traffic increases the accident rate . That has been the conclusion of several traffic studies . In 1991 speed limiters were considered and rejected by Congress . Despite the evidence that speed limiters would increase accident rates Road Safe America petitioned NHTSA to require manufacturers to install speed limiters on all trucks over 26,000 lbs. GVW to limit their speeds to 68 m.p.h. . These petitions were protested by the Owner Operators and Independent Drivers Association citing the past dangers cited in studies and claiming the intent of the petition was to stop ATA drivers from going to companies that allowed their trucks to run the speed limit . Many trucking publications including The Trucker and Newport Publication's Road Star featured several articles on the issue . Articles in The Trucker mentioned additional studies finding split speeds increased fatigue and editorials in Road Star questioned ATA's motives . NHTSA published a request for comments on the petition http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/07-326.htm . While the request listed 9 specific questions NHTSA sought information on the vast majority of responders ignored those questions . The reason being Road Safe America used faxes http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/pdf100/456656_web.pdf and their website Roadsafeamerica.org to link hundreds of supporters directly to the comment page without reading the request for comments . As a result many comments by the uninformed supporters were inaccurate, emotional , and irrelevant .
