The Fast Lanes Higher Speed Limits Likely To Make Accidents More Deadly

When state officials increased the speed limit on the freeway, they predicted motorists wouldn’t actually drive any faster.

The new limit just made legal the speed at which many motorists always drove, they said. In fact, the increased speed limit would help synchronize the speeds at which all motorists are traveling. That would make the freeways safer, they predicted.

However, according to the Washington State Patrol and Valley residents, that has not been the case along Interstate 90.

Some drivers have started pushing the new speed limit to its edge, while others have been slow to bump their speeds up five miles per hour, they said.

Already the Valley has had one fatal accident near the Liberty Lake interchange, where the new posted speed limit is 70.

That accident, which killed one motorist, reminds veteran troopers of other nasty accidents they investigated the last time the speed limit through the Valley was 70 miles per hour.

Even though many of those accidents were the result of young drivers returning from nights of partying in Idaho, where the drinking age then was only 19, they fear last week’s fatal accident could be a preview of things to come.

“When you do get into an accident (at the higher speed), your car’s not going to hold up as well,” said Trooper Brad Hudson. “And your chances of surviving aren’t as good.”

Traffic is much heavier now than it was in 1973, the last time the speed limit in the Valley was 70 miles per hour, Ron Gariss pointed out.

Cars are often clustered together when Gariss drives to the construction office he works at in Spokane.

“It’s awfully crowded in this particular area, as far as traffic goes,” Gariss said.

He worries that younger, less experienced drivers will not be able to handle the higher speeds. He thinks last Monday’s accident may support that theory.

WSP detectives may charge a 17-year-old driver involved in the accident with vehicular homicide, saying she was driving too fast.

State officials raised the speed limit five miles per hour on more than 700 miles of interstate highways last month.

The increase shaves about 20 minutes off a cross-state trip for motorists driving the speed limit.

In the Valley, speed limits jumped to 70 miles per hour over an eight-mile stretch from about the Sullivan exit to the state line. The speed limit from the Sullivan exit into the city is now 60.

Previously, the speed limit was 65 east from about the Liberty Lake interchange.

Troopers don’t expect the higher speeds alone to mean more accidents. But the accidents that do happen figure to be worse - even more so if motorists are speeding.

“Now instead of just pushing 65 or 70, you’re pushing 75 or 80,” said Hudson, who has patroled the Valley a little more than a year.

But, state officials, including Transportation Secretary Sid Morrison, said raising the speed limits wouldn’t necessarily mean higher speeds. People already drove faster than the posted freeway speeds before they were raised, Morrison said.

Therefore, the higher limits will actually increase safety in some instances, because it will help synchronize the flow of traffic, state officials have said.

Those officials refer to the “Rule of 85” - an unofficial rule of thumb that says the optimum speed is what 85 percent of motorists choose to drive in a given area. A wider variety of driving speeds can actually lead to accidents, Morrison has said.

After a month of driving at the new speed limit, Otis Orchards resident Bill Gibson says a new “optimum” speed is forming.

Gibson, who travels both the 60- and 70-mile-per-hour stretch several times weekly during his work commute, has noticed speeds of drivers starting to creep over the speed limit.

“You always push it five miles per hour over the speed limit,” Gibson said.

Trooper Hudson agreed.

“I think it’s kind of human nature,” he said. “You’ve got to feel like you’re getting away with something.”

So far, speeders haven’t been a big problem. Hudson said the larger tickets he has written have come no more often than before the speed limit increased last month.

WSP Sgt. Chris Powell expects speeders to have adjusted to the new limit by the time summer rolls around. And troopers will be ready with extra patrols to make sure they don’t abuse the new limit, he said.

One of the biggest problems troopers have seen is cars following too close. It takes 1.5 seconds for the brain to react to something the eye sees, Hudson said.

Valley drivers seem to be pleased with the increased speed limits. They say as a result traffic is moving smoothly.

“People are getting where they need to be faster, so they are less frustrated on the freeway,” Gibson said. “I know I am.”

But given time, Gariss predicts drivers will fall back into a routine. And the ones that pushed the speed limit before will do it again.

“You sort of get used to a flow, you set your cruise and away you go,” Gariss said.

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