New Mexico Considers Ban of Big Rigs In Left Lane
Senator George Munoz (D-Gallup) talked about how dangerous interstates like I-40 have become In a Senate Committee meeting.
“It’s dangerous; you get on I-40, and you’re going along at 75 miles an hour, and a semi pulls out at 65 and tries to pass the other semi at 67, and traffic backs up for ten miles and frustration levels with people are getting ridiculous,” Munoz said.
Preventing Fatal Accidents
Munoz also stated Senate Bill 102 would require semi-trucks to stay to the right way on any highway that has two lanes or more and creates up to a $250 fine if they don’t. This isn’t the first time Munoz has tried to get legislation like this passed.
A similar bill was successful in passing last year but wasn’t signed into law by the governor on a pocket veto. Munoz presented statistics on the number of fatal accidents as evidence for the need to try to get this law across the finish line again. “It’s about 384 fatal accidents in New Mexico on I-40 alone,” Munoz said.
Keeping Big Rigs in the Right Lane
State Police Lieutenant Wendy Carpenter-Graft said “They can go in all lanes in New Mexico which makes it more difficult for the average driver coming across the state. It also means the trucks are in every lane and the trucks tend to take 30 to 40 percent longer to stop than a car does because of the size and the weight that they’re carrying.”
When asked about this latest bill effort, Carpenter-Graft said keeping big rigs in the right lane would be helpful: “If we cut it down to the right lane, or we were to add a lane, it would help New Mexico a lot. Even though we’re a very spread-out state and there’s not a lot of people here, the commercial traffic is still the same in every other state as it is in New Mexico. So, we have to accommodate for that.”
Truckers Could Still Pass in the Left Lane
Truckers would still be allowed to use the fast lane to pass. The bill passed the Senate Committee 8 to 0.
Someone from the public also brought up the need to widen I-40 from Albuquerque to Arizona to three lanes in each direction while in the hearing, which The DOT is looking into it, though a national transportation group estimated that it could cost more than $800 million for a lane widening project such as this.
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