speed kills … less often

Big rigs are less likely to be involved in highway fatalities than ever, even though the number of vehicles on the road has hit an all-time high. Statistics released just last month by the (not so speedy) Federal Highway Administration show that in 2006, three key measures of truck safety had their best showing since the U.S Department of Transportation started tracking them back in 1975. Here's the rundown:

• The fatal crash rate for large trucks was 1.93 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2006. That's down from the previous low of 1.97 in 2005.
• The large-truck involvement rate, which measures the number of trucks that were involved in fatal crashes, declined to 2.12 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from 2.21 in 2005.
• The fatality rate—the number of deaths in truck-involved crashes— declined to 2.24 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. That's down from 2.34 the previous year.

These improvements are all the more commendable considering that there were almost 3 million more vehicles on the road in 2006 than there were in 2005.

The American Trucking Associations attributes some of that improvement to its own outreach efforts promoting education, safety-belt and traffic enforcement, promotion of speed limiters on truck engines, and a return to a national speed limit of 65 miles per hour.