Beginning October 1, 2005, Dallas County will join Harris and Travis Counties in prohibiting 18-wheelers from driving in the far left lane of highway traffic.
The safety test will involve only certain sections of Interstates 20 and 30. The object of the test is to learn if separating big trucks from passenger vehicles will reduce the number of collisions between the two types of vehicles.
Collisions between large trucks and automobiles cause a disproportionate number of fatalities and very serious injuries, more often to the occupants of the passenger vehicles, rather than to the drivers of the big rig trucks.
This new law should reduce the number of times faster moving automobiles must change lanes in order to avoid slower moving big trucks.
