COMMEN'T
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CREDIBILITY AT THE LIMIT
hy aren't we the least bit surprised by the results from Lucas Kienzle's survey into speed limiter compliance? Perhaps because long before the UK adopted speed limiters in 1992, CM pointed out to the Department of Transport that without any kind of functional test the legislation was completely and utterly flawed. Not that the DOT paid any attention to us. After all, it had the reputation of heretoday, gone-tomorrow, politicians to protect. The same politicians who claimed speed limiters would do all kinds of wonderful things from saving up to 25 deaths a year (unlikely), to "making a major contribution towards stabilising carbon dioxide output" (fatuous). The only thing limiters have done is increase the incidence of HGV bunching on motorways, and raise the temperatures of other road users, while driving up the demands for more horsepower in top-weight trucks so operators can maintain a constant 56mph up hill and down dale every day of the year. Now Lucas Kienzle tells us more than half the vehicles in its secret survey didn't comply with the limiter legislation. No! Really? Moreover, some 29% of those trucks tested had limiters that weren't even working. Never! And how did [K's dealers find that out? By doing the one thing the DOT, and now the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions has consistently refused to do. Go out on the road and physically test a truck to see whether its limiter is doing its job. How else can you be 100% sure it is? Speed limiters should be checked on the road at EVERY annual test. It's time the men at the DOT opened their eyes to the real world. And if they don't believe LK's figures they should drive along the M6 at 56mph—then they'd know just how many HGV limiters were working.