Comments drive home point: Speed kills.

Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard

Faster freeway speeds equal more accidents, more serious injuries, more deaths. That was one clear message local residents delivered Tuesday night to a state transportation panel meeting in Eugene.

Another comment the Speed Zone Review Panel heard repeatedly is that posting different speeds for cars and trucks makes interstate travel more treacherous.

"Dodging in and out of left lanes, avoiding slower trucks on the right and faster traffic on the left" causes "emotional stress" in drivers, said Donald Newman of Eugene.

Ten people spoke before the panel, and only a couple commented specifically on a state Department of Transportation proposal to raise the speed limit 5 mph on Interstate 5 through Eugene-Springfield.

"I'm opposed to increasing any speed through this Eugene area," said Ron Bowers, a Creswell resident who operates a trucking company that hauls forest byproducts.

The state recommends a new limit of 60 mph for cars through the urban area and similar increases for sections of I-5 in Medford and Salem and for I-84 on the east side of Portland.

Drivers already do 60 through the urban area, and law enforcement has a limited presence, Bowers said.

The more critical issue, he said, is the 10 mph gap between car and truck speeds along rural stretches of Oregon's interstate system.

"The situation I see now is a lot of people cutting in and out of the trucks. ... That's lives, that's serious injuries," he said.

Grant Mullan, a Springfield sales representative, said he travels a lot and compares Oregon traffic to other states. He favors experimenting with limits of 70 for cars and 65 for trucks.

The 2003 Legislature authorized the Oregon Transportation Commission to raise speed limits to those levels, and a recent transportation study said it was reasonable to raise car limits to 70 outside of urban areas.

But the study also said trucks should not be allowed to go faster than 60 mph anywhere on interstates. That poses a problem, because lawmakers - after heavy lobbying by the Oregon Trucking Association - said wherever the state allows cars to travel 70, it must also set the truck limit at 65 to keep all traffic flowing at a relatively similar pace.

As a result, transportation officials have not recommended raising the limit to 70 along any interstate.

However, the proposed 60 mph limit in the Eugene area is consistent with actual traffic speeds, said Ed Fischer, the state traffic engineer and a member of the review panel. The 5.5-mile stretch also has three lanes in each direction and wide shoulders - features that better accommodate a faster limit, Fischer said.

Lt. Mike Bloom, area commander for the Oregon State Police, said drivers routinely exceed posted speeds anyway. A limit of 70 mph for cars, for example, would encourage many drivers to travel 75 to 80 mph, Bloom said.

"They all know there's a buffer," he said.

Also, the freeway is overcrowded and state patrols are inadequate to enforce higher speeds, he said.

The Alliance for Community Traffic Safety in Oregon, a nonprofit group that works to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities, opposes any increase in interstate speed limits.

Speeding drivers kill more people than drunk drivers each year in Oregon, said Depoe Bay businessman Mike Laverty, the group's president.

"When we raise the speed limit on interstates, the fatalities also increase," Laverty said, citing state statistics on fatalities before and after Oregon raised freeway speeds to 65 mph from 55 mph in 1986.

"It's a basic law of physics: the higher the speed, the greater the impact and that means risk of death or injury," he said.

Additional public meetings are scheduled for tonight in Portland, Thursday in The Dalles and Friday in La Grande.

The transportation commission is expected to vote on the proposals Sept. 30 after the speed review panel offers its recommendation. Any changes could go into effect soon after that.