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This is from a Colorado website:
Increased Stopping Distance
The unique features of large rigs also contribute to many accidents:
* Stopping distance for a truck is dramatically greater than a car - for a speed of 65 mph it takes a car about 162 feet to stop, but a semi-truck needs about 420 feet to stop.
* For bobtails (trucks without a trailer) and empty trucks, the stopping distance is even greater because the lighter load has less traction. Heavy trucks are designed with brakes, tires, springs and shock absorbers optimized with the weight of a full load.
Under riding
One of the most deadly type of accident results when trucks lack adequate safeguards on the rear of the truck to prevent vehicles from "underriding." A car underrides a truck when the truck brakes quickly and the car fails to stop before plowing into, and under, the semi - typically shearing off the top of the car. Underrides kill approximately 1,000 persons each year, and all of them are car occupants - only about 2% of those occupants survive the accident. These accidents occur because trucks stop or slow suddenly and the driver of the car is unable to avoid rear-ending the truck.
Those traveling in passenger vehicles must drive defensively when sharing the roads with the increasing numbers of semi-trucks, to avoid the awful consequences of large truck accident.
So this says that an average truck stopping distance is 420 feet, yet it takes a car 162 feet to stop. Yet somehow when the truck suddenly slows the car slams into the rear end. Does that mean the car was tailgating? And they are trying to blame the truck driver? I guess that would be like blaming the train for hitting the car.
Back on subject:
Everyone is entitled to their opinion of slow trucks and fast cars. I should concede and admit that it is safer for a faster moving car to pass back in front of a semi, than it is for a car traveling the same speed as the semi, and then disappear from site over/under the trucker's hood (because they typically try to clip the trucker's front bumper).
Just because the speed limit is 65, doesn't mean you HAVE to drive it. having the same speed limits for trucks and cars at least gives the trucker the option of keeping up with traffic, or driving less than the speed limit.
I will now go back to my corner and hide in the fetal position...
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