Study: Tighter winter speed limits for trucks could save 5-10 lives a year

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In September, the Ministry of Transport and Communications abandoned plans for a winter speed limit of 70km/hour for large trucks, despite an ongoing study by VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) that now suggests such a seasonal speed limit could reduce the number of fatal accidents by 5-10 per year.
      The VTT study and the ministry's plan to introduce the 70km/hour seasonal speed limit for trucks were both a direct result of the horrendous accident in Konginkangas in March this year, where 23 people lost their lives as a bus collided with a trailer lorry.
      Put into force, the new speed limit would have applied to nearly all full truck-trailer combinations and articulated trucks, which are used to take care of most of the goods traffic on Finnish roads.
     
According to the VTT study, the introduction of the stricter speed limit would have lowered the average speed of trailer trucks by 3 km/hour. This in turn would have improved safety on Finnish roads, as the entire flow of traffic would have slowed down somewhat.
      Even if this might have triggered a rise in the number of overtaking accidents, the overall benefit would have outweighed the harm.
      The slowing down of traffic and fewer accidents would have saved the government an estimated EUR 15 million a year, but at the same time the businesses would have had to spend an additional EUR 5-15 million on restructuring their haulage schedules.
     
Through simulator tests, VTT discovered full trailer trucks to be more unstable than semitrailers. Reduction of speed evened out some of the difference.
      In recent years, an average of 270 accidents involving trucks have taken place annually on Finnish roads, with around 50 of these resulting in fatalities. The figures indicate an average annual total of 55 people having lost their lives, while 230 were injured. On average, eight of the fatal collisions were attributable to the truck or truck-trailer combination.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Winter speed limits to be tightened (30.8.2004)

Links:
  VTT traffic safety projects 1999-2004

Helsingin Sanomat