Statistics show facts on truck crashes, speed

I thought my last letter (March 1) referring to Mr. Herman Lenz's letters on fatalities and big trucks would be my last. I thought I stated pretty clearly what I had to say. This time I will just tell all readers to make up their own minds by going to the Web site he referred to, www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov. I do not know how Mr. Lenz concludes (March 21 letter) what he does from that Web site.

But it does say that in 2008, Iowa had 69 fatal crashes involving large trucks, and Illinois had 136. The article I referred to in The Gazette stated only two of 41 “big-rig” speeding fatalities in Iowa were on the interstate system. There were a total of 571 total fatal accidents of all kinds. Illinois, which still has a 55 mph limit for trucks, had 136 fatal accidents involving large trucks and a total of 1,437 deaths resulting from all accidents. Yes, they are much more populated than us, but number for number, the death rate is higher in the lower speed limit state.

This is truly my last letter on this subject - let the statistics speak for themselves.

Kathy Walker

Cedar Rapids