South Carolina is now limiting big trucks to the two right lanes of stretches of interstate with three or more lanes.

The state Department of Transportation announced the new rules Thursday, unveiling signs along the interstates alerting truckers of the restriction. North Carolina and Georgia have similar restrictions, according to published reports.
The move follows a pilot program that has been in place on two stretches of Interstate 85 in the upstate area since September 2000. After one year, the number of crashes on those highways dropped 17 percent, the number of crashes with injuries dropped 72 percent, and there were no fatal crashes involving trucks. However, traffic enforcement also was increased during the pilot period.
The South Carolina Trucking Assn. released a statement, noting that "reducing the highway capacity for large commercial vehicles may provide a more convenient high speed lane for cars, but it will create another set of challenges for truck drivers."
In a letter last October to the state DOT, the association said it would not oppose the policy, but it had a number of concerns about it, including the potential for increased tailgating, more erratic and impatient automobile driver behavior around large trucks, and greater difficulty with traffic entering and exiting interstates. SCTA President J. Richards Todds wrote that the association was "not convinced that any quantifiable safety benefits have been realized as a direct result of the lane restrictions imposed" during the pilot project.
In the statement released to the press this week, the association also noted that the number of fatalities and collisions involving large trucks dropped 25 percent in the state between 1999 and 2000. Todds credits an "overall team effort," with SCTA members' public education initiatives working in tandem with the stepped-up focus of a variety of local law enforcement agencies.