March 28, 2006
THE VISIBLE HAND:
Trucks to face new fuel-economy rules (Jayne O'Donnell, 3/27/06, USA TODAY)
New fuel-economy rules for trucks to be announced this week would not only impose mileage standards for the first time on previously exempt heavy-duty models, such as the Hummer H2, but also would overhaul standards for other trucks, according to auto industry officials and others familiar with the plan. [...]Posted by Orrin Judd at March 28, 2006 7:23 AMFederal officials wanted a new system that doesn't encourage selling more small trucks in order to meet mileage standards. Statistics show that bigger, heavier vehicles are safer to their occupants in crashes than smaller, lighter vehicles are.
If the new standards encourage larger vehicles, "from a safety perspective, that's good," says Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
... "heavier vehicles are safer to their occupants in crashes than smaller, lighter vehicles are."
Good for the drivers, but what about the poor souls in the other vehicle when there's a crash. Very frequently along I-95 and I-4 here in Florida, it's a jack-knifed 18 wheeler, too big and heavy to be able to stop quickly v. old parties in a sedan or mom and kids in a van -- all dead, while trucker walks away. Carnage in these accidents is too awful to describe and it backs up traffic for hours at a time.