Montana Preparing To Reinstate Speed Limits

HELENA, Mont. - Less than a month before Montana's new daytime speed limit takes effect, officials say the signs are complete, posts are being installed and an education campaign is under way.

Speeding motorists should have no grounds for pleading ignorance on May 28, when the new law kicks in, they say.

The 1999 Legislature this year enacted a new daytime speed limit for Montana's highways, effective the Friday before Memorial Day.

The state has been without a specific daytime limit since December 1995, when Congress repealed the federal speed limit.

Earlier this year, the Montana Supreme Court struck down the state's "basic rule" speed law, which required that speed be "reasonable and prudent" for conditions. The court said that was too vague.

Nighttime speed limits of 65 mph on interstate highways and 55 mph on other highways have remained in effect, and the state has used reckless-driving charges against the most aggressive drivers.

Under Montana's new law, the speed limit on interstates will be 75 mph, both day and night, for cars and light trucks. On two-lane roads, the new law sets a 70 mph limit during the day and 65 mph limit at night for cars and light trucks.

For heavy trucks, the interstate limit will be 65 mph day and night, and the two-lane speed limit will be 60 mph daytime and 55 mph after dark.

John Blacker, maintenance administrator for the Transportation Department, said 5,000 new speed limit signs will be in place by May

21, seven days before the speed limit officially takes effect. The limits won't be enforced by the Highway Patrol until May 28.

He said placing the signs will cost the state about $500,000.

Maj. Bert Obert of the Montana Highway Patrol said the patrol has been working to educate drivers through public-safety announcements in news media. The Transportation Department and Travel Montana, the state's tourism agency, have been distributing fliers and posters to auto-club offices across the country, sending out press releases to travel magazines and contacting rental car agencies and county motor-vehicle offices.