Winds of Change Newsletter, December 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

Kentucky needs study on truck weight limits

Nov. 02 editorial in the Lexington Herald Leader

A truck weighing 100,000 pounds with unadjusted brakes travels 25 percent farther after the driver steps on the brakes than an 80,000-pound truck. A 120,000-pound truck can travel as much as 50 percent farther before stopping than an 80,000-pound truck.

That's according to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the National Academy of Sciences.

The question of whether it's safer to have fewer 60-ton coal trucks or more 40-ton coal trucks on Kentucky's roads is not, as Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor suggests, philosophical. It's a question of mathematics and physics -- and economics.

We would love to see a legitimate study of the costs of Kentucky's 40,000-pound favor to the coal industry: What is the cost to taxpayers of exempting coal trucks from the weight limits that apply to the rest of the trucking industry? What is the cost in road and bridge repairs? What is the cost in human lives and injuries?

These are knowable numbers that state policy-makers need if they are to make responsible decisions.
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This is OVEC saying: We need the same here in West Virginia.