Montana To Reconsider Speed Limits

The state transportation director is reconvening a committee that will examine whether Montana should have a numerical, daytime speed limit for cars.

Transportation Director Marvin Dye wants an analysis and recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee on Speeds by Oct. 10.

After an analysis earlier this year, the committee last fall recommended a daytime limit of 75 mph on interstate highways and 65 mph on two-lane highways.

That recommendation, supported by the governor, the attorney general and the Montana Highway Patrol chief, was rejected by the 1997 Legislature.

Montana has not had a daytime speed limit for cars since December 1995.

There are numerical daytime limits for trucks, and numerical limits for all vehicles at night.

So far this year, there have been 179 deaths on Montana highways, up 26 percent from the same period last year.

In a letter to state safety management engineer Pierre Jomini, Dye said he suspects there has been “a change in attitude that’s reflected in a distinct change in behavior among a growing group of drivers. I see far more vehicles at very high speeds and frequent episodes of dangerous passing, tailgating and the like.”

The committee will go through the same procedures of analysis as it did before, but with updated statistics, said Jomini, who was asked to call a meeting of the group.