• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Crime / Courts / Iowa used to have no limit on highway speed

Iowa used to have no limit on highway speed

July 1, 2005 By admin

Iowa’s rural interstate speed limit rises to 70 today (Friday) but it’s not the first time we’ve legally been able to go that fast. When Mel Allen of Newton first became an Iowa Highway Patrolman in 1953, the sky was the speed limit as the signs only read “reasonable and proper.” Allen, who retired in the late ’70s, says speeding tickets didn’t exist then. “If someone was really exceeding the speed limit, we used to stop ’em and warn ’em and tell ’em ‘you’re going too fast to be able to stop under the conditions’ and just talk to ’em but you couldn’t file a charge on ’em.”

Allen says back then, if someone wrecked, they could be charged with failure to maintain control — if they lived. With no air bags, no seat belts and very high speeds, he says there were rarely survivors. He says cars weren’t built for safety then and even one-car crashes would prove fatal, especially if they’d been pushing 100 miles an hour. The speed limit signs on Iowa’s highways during that era literally said “Reasonable and Proper” and Allen says, there was little to be done about excessive speeders by the patrolmen — the term trooper wasn’t used then.

He says “All we had was the ‘under control’ thing. If they’re driving down the road 85 miles an hour in the rain and aren’t having a wreck or anything, they apparently have their car under control.” Those days ended in 1959, when the first speed limit signs were posted in Iowa. They called for a limit of 70 miles an hour during the day and 65 at night. Allen says his first Iowa State Patrol car topped out at 85 miles an hour. He says he’d often get outrun in that 1952 Ford.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Crime / Courts Tagged With: Transportation

Featured Stories

Governor signs Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard into law

Jury returns guilty verdict in shooting death of State Trooper

Summit has easements for 20% of carbon pipeline route through Iowa

Morel mushroom hunters on hold without warmer conditions

Trinity Health aquiring all MercyOne health properties

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa Special Olympics Summer games set to open in Ames

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/16/22

Iowa assistant coach Kirk Speraw to retire

Northern Iowa prepares for Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament

T.J. Otzelberger announces staff changes at Iowa State

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC