A second House committee has endorsed the idea of raising the speed limit on Iowa Interstates to 70 miles per hour. The House Transportation Committee approved the idea last month. The Ways and Means Committee endorsed higher speed limits yesterday. Committee chairman Jamie Van Fossen, a republican from Davenport, says the bill also calls for higher speeding fines, and part of the extra money would be used to buy new cars for state troopers. “So they can chase speeders,” Van Fossen says, laughing. Van Fossen, the son of a retired cop, says troopers are driving high-mileage cars, and that poses a concern that there’ll be dangerous break-downs during high-speed chases. Van Fossen says there was little debate in the committee about the speed limit, maybe because most Iowans want the change.”Average (Interstate) speed, across the board, is pretty much 70 miles per hour so I think what we’re going is really getting in line with where people are driving…and taking the fact that they’re doing it (illegally) in Iowa right now and making it legal,” Van Fossen says. But the bill still doesn’t have clear passage as it will be considered in a third committee — the House Appropriations Committee — before it can be debated by the full House.
