Governor can't outrun questions on speeding

By Iowa City Press-Citizen

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During a news conference earlier this month, Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds tried very hard to put a positive spin on why the Gov. Terry Branstad's car was clocked doing 84 in a 65 zone on U.S. Highway 20 back in April.

“We're very busy,” Reynolds said. “We're on the road a lot, and I think that's one of the real assets of this administration is being accessible and out in the state and meeting with people and listening to their concerns, and so we work hard. And we have an ambitious schedule.”

But if Reynolds and Branstad are under the impression that it's at all acceptable for their driver to go 84 in a 65 zone - or even a “hard 90” - while in the course of normal, run-a-the-mill state business, then perhaps they should use their bully pulpits and try to and pressure the Iowa Legislature to raise the speed limit to 85.

At least then public safety advocates would have the chance to tell the governor all the statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety about how motor vehicle fatality rates increase substantially in states that raised speed limits over the past decade.

At least then they could point out how speeding already is a factor in a third of all crashes, resulting in nearly 15,000 fatalities each year.

At least then they could point out that the economic costs of those crashes are more than $40 billion a year.

At least then they could point out that it's often not just the speeding driver who is killed or injured, but the innocent family traveling behind them that suddenly must swerve to avoid a head-on collision with an accident a speeder has caused.

At least then they could talk about how speeding results in increased oil and gas consumption. (After all, a gas crunch was the reason for dropping speed limits from 70 mph to 55 mph in 1974.) And increasing driving speed from 62 mph to 75 mph results in as much as 20 percent more fuel consumption.

Anyone supporting higher speed limits usually would respond to such statistics by arguing that higher fines and penalties would deter drivers from exceeding the limits. And especially in cities such as Cedar Rapids, Muscatine, Sioux City and Des Moines that use traffic cameras to catch speeders, those citations are issued regularly and in a timely fashion.

But it seems even that limiting factor doesn't apply to all state workers. Not only did law enforcement officers stop their pursuit in April once they realized they were chasing the governor's car; now it seems the governor's car - along as many as 3,200 other unmarked government vehicles not in computer data files - doesn't trigger the automatic citations from traffic cameras.

Considering that the state worker who reported the speeding vehicle was removed from duty a few days later, the public deserves a full explanation of what happened in April.

The public also deserves a more thorough account of what the governor's office is doing to ensure that the governor - when not responding to an emergency someone in the state - abides by the same laws as any other citizen.

We don't believe the governor wants to see the speed limit raised for everyone.

So when the emergency duties of his office do require him to speed along the public roads, he should use a police escort with flashing lights.

That way he'll ensure that the public - and other law enforcement officers - will know to stay out of his way.