Speed Limit Debate Reaches Trucks

HELENA (AP) — Montana’s biggest trucking organization says the state Legislature’s proposed 10 mph increase in the speed limit for trucks on Interstate highways would increase accidents and deaths.

“Raising speeds by 10 mph goes backward against any safety numbers out there,” said Ray Kuntz, president-elect of the Montana Motor Carriers Association. “Honestly, the Legislature has an obligation to control that risk.”

The association, which represents 400 carriers, is urging legislators to take speed limits for trucks back to their current levels of 65 mph, day and night.

The higher truck limit is part of a bill speeding through the Legislature to set numerical daytime speed limits in Montana for the first time since the federal government dropped speed limits three years ago. The bill would set the limit at 75 mph for cars and trucks, day and night. On two-lane roads the limit for cars would be 70 mph in daytime and 65 at night, and for trucks 60 and 55 mph.

Kuntz said many of Montana’s 26,000 truckers are concerned about their ability to stop at the higher speeds, avoid turning over or jackknifing.

State Sen. Chick Swysgood, an independent trucker, proposed the amendment that set the same 75 mph limit for cars and trucks, and he defends the decision.

“There are always accidents, no matter what the speeds are,” he said. “I’ve been in the trucking business for 30 years, and I drive at a speed I believe is safe.”

Swysgood said today’s trucks, with sophisticated technology and equipment, can handle higher speeds.