Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511270066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: DENVER LENGTH: Medium
If signed into law, the National Highway System Designation Act would abolish federal control of speed limits, first imposed as a fuel-saving measure in 1974.
Without federal control, Montana automatically becomes America's ``autobahn'' state. Like drivers on many of Germany's major highways, drivers on interstates in Montana would not face any daytime speed limits as they roared through Big Sky Country.
A generation ago, state legislators across the West reacted angrily to the imposition of the National Maximum Speed Limit, a law that set the nation's top speed at 55 mph. States that did not comply ran the risk of losing federal highway money. In 1987, states were allowed to increase the limit to 65 mph on interstates in rural areas.
Nurturing the dream of racing through wide open spaces, state legislatures in the West adopted speed limits that would take effect if federal limits were repealed. In Montana, lawmakers voted to restore a pre-1974 law that stipulated only that motorists should drive at a ``reasonable and prudent speed.''
Clinton has objected to the speed limit provision and other parts of the highway bill, but he is expected to sign it.
With his signature, maximum speed limits would jump to 75 mph in Kansas, Nevada and Wyoming, and to 70 mph in California, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. Colorado's Legislature is to debate a proposal to raise the maximum to 75 mph.
In the Rocky Mountain West, some people have long argued that geography and light population densities warrant one big fast lane.
``We have fewer people in this entire state than in the city of Honolulu, and three times as many cows as people,'' said Andrew Malcolm, a spokesman for Gov. Marc Racicot of Montana, offering a rationale for opening up speed limits.
Safety groups and insurance companies are urging Clinton to veto the highway bill, which would make $6.5 billion in aid available to the states and free them from some other federal regulations, including motorcycle helmet requirements, a billboard ban on scenic highways and some rules related to trucks.
In pressing the president, one safety group, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, recalled that Clinton's father had died in a car crash. ``We can't repeal the law of physics,'' said Katherine Hutt, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based advocacy group. ``The physical impact doubles every 10 miles per hour over the current speed limit.''
Noting that 4,694 people died in interstate highway crashes last year, the group said, ``Congress has moved forward with a highway bill that will, for the first time in history, kill more Americans than it saves.''
Monday, consumer advocate Ralph Nader implored Clinton, ``Visualize, please, what is at stake - between 6,000 and 7,000 more fatalities annually, tens of thousands of disabling injuries, $19 billion in public health and related costs a year, higher auto insurance rates, higher worker's compensation premiums, more air pollution, more imported oil and more hazards to highway police enforcement officials.''
In the five years after Congress raised rural speed limits to 65 mph, fatalities increased by 30 percent on highway stretches where speed limits were raised, according to a study by the federal Department of Transportation, which says speed contributes to one-third of all highway deaths.
Safety advocates wonder how Montana drivers will fare next month if they come upon a stray cow or a patch of black ice while traveling at 100 mph. Indeed, the deadliest stretch of interstate highway in America is in Montana, on Interstate 90 in Silver Bow County, according to a computer-aided study of interstate deaths conducted this month by the Hearst Newspapers. Rural stretches of interstate in Utah, New Mexico and Texas were not far behind.
In a public opinion poll conducted last April for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, 64 percent of Americans surveyed strongly opposed raising interstate speed limits above 65 mph.
by CNB