By Dean DeSchryver
Anyone who has driven through Central Florida knows this feeling: traffic slows to a crawl. Tempers get short, and people start cutting each other off. Add a sudden rainstorm or a minor crash, and then everything can come to a standstill. Now add significantly heavier semi-trucks to that mix.
That is exactly what some big companies are pushing for in Washington as lawmakers approach the next highway reauthorization bill. Proponents are seeking to raise federal truck weight limits from 80,000 pounds to 91,000 pounds. The consequences would be felt immediately on Central Florida roads.
In Edgewood, more than 40,000 vehicles travel Orange Avenue every day. During peak travel seasons, our roads are not just busy, they are overwhelmed. — families on vacation, delivery vehicles, rideshares, commuters and commercial trucks, all competing for the same limited space.
Heavier trucks do not make that situation safer. They make it more dangerous.
For more than three decades, I have responded to countless crashes. Experience teaches you quickly that when things go wrong on the road, truck size and weight matters.
Heavier vehicles take longer to stop, put more strain on their braking systems and leave far less margin for error when traffic suddenly slows or conditions change. The federal government already has weighed in, with the Department of Transportation concluding that heavier trucks are far more dangerous and crash far more often.
Central Florida’s roads already demand constant attention and caution. Congestion on corridors like I-4 and surrounding surface streets is a daily challenge. Introducing heavier trucks into that environment would be a recipe for disaster, increasing the severity of crashes and making recovery from incidents even more difficult. Heavier trucks also accelerate wear and tear on roads and bridges, shifting costs onto taxpayers and local governments that are already struggling to keep up with maintenance demands.
Those pushing for heavier trucks argue it would make freight movement more efficient. But efficiency for a small segment of industry should never come at the expense of public safety. The people who live, work and travel on these roads deserve better than to be treated as an afterthought in a cost-cutting exercise.
We should be focused on improving safety, reducing congestion, and protecting the traveling public, not introducing larger risks into an already complex system. Congress has rejected heavier truck proposals for many years running, and it should do so again. Heavier trucks don’t belong on our roads, and communities like those in Central Florida would pay the price if they are allowed to move forward.
Dean DeSchryver is the Chief of the Edgewood Police Department.
