The speed limit on South State Street beyond Iola’s city limit soon will be 35 miles an hour to beyond the south end of Elm Creek bridge and change to 45 miles per hour up to the Humboldt turnoff about a mile farther south.
The speed has been 55 mph upon leaving Iola city limits for many years.
Tuesday morning county commissioners Gary McIntosh and Rob Francis — Dick Works was unable to attend — made the change.
Sheriff Tom Williams had recommended the change, telling commissioners earlier that 80 traffic accidents, including three fatalities, had occurred on the stretch in the past five years and that a lower limit would save lives.
Iola Chief of Police Jared Warner agrees that people go too fast in that stretch.
Warner said a new speed radar device has detected a number of speeders in the area. Since Thursday the machine has clocked 18,248 vehicles. Of those, 35 percent exceeded the speed limit.
One vehicle, between 7 and 8 p.m. Sunday, was clocked at 93 mph. Another was detected traveling between 76 and 80 mph.
Warner said he thought the slower speed limit would make the intersection of State Street and the park entrance safer.
“It will help a lot when we have events, such as football games, going on in the park and during the summer when kids are going there to swim and play ball,” Warner said.
Williams told commissioners he had had just one call opposing the lower speeds and “many who were in favor. I think it’s going to make a big difference.”
His officers will patrol the area but won’t issue tickets right away.
“We’ll give warnings until people have had ample time to get accustomed to the new speed limits,” he said.
The legal notice changing the limits will be published in the Register Friday. They will become effective when Public Works Department personnel erect new signs.
Speed limit lowered near Iola
