Montanans In A Hurry Face 10-Day Wait Before Speeding

Motorists in Montana, in a hurry to speed up, will have to slow down.

The law repealing the 21-year-old federal speed limit, signed by President Clinton on Tuesday, does not take effect for 10 days. Until then, drivers still are restricted to 65 mph on interstate highways and 55 mph on two-lane highways.

Beginning Dec. 8, Highway Patrol officers will return to enforcing Montana’s law in effect before the federal limit was imposed in 1974. Once again, the state will have no daytime speed limit for cars other than the requirement to travel no faster than what is “reasonable and proper” for conditions.

Trucks will be limited to 65 mph on interstates and 60 mph on two-lane highways. Nighttime speed limits will apply to all vehicles: 65 mph on interstates and 55 mph on two-lane roads.

“In the meantime, it’s business as usual,” Col. Craig Reap, head of the Highway Patrol, said Tuesday.

The 10-day delay in ending the federal speed limit is meant to give states time to respond. Governors have until Dec. 8 to decide whether to keep the federal limit in effect until their legislatures take action.

In Montana, that does not matter. The Legislature is not scheduled to meet again until 1997 and state law was written in such a way that speed limits automatically revert to their pre-1974 level whenever the federal limit is lifted.

That law prevents Gov. Marc Racicot from taking any action, said Andrew Malcolm, his communications director. “We do not need to, nor do we intend to, do anything.”

Dennis Unsworth, spokesman for the state Transportation Department, said the agency will need about four weeks to change or add highway signs to reflect the return to old speed laws.

Existing 65 mph and 55 mph signs will be altered to show they apply at night, while new signs will be erected to show limits for trucks.

Montana and other states adopted the federal speed limit two decades ago under threat of losing federal highway money. The restriction was intended to save energy in the wake of the Mideast oil embargo.

The Legislature, angered by what many considered federal blackmail, authorized a fine of only $5 for violating the “fuel conservation speed limit” and decided those tickets should not be added to a driver’s record.