NorCal lowers speed limit to 55 mph on State Route 44

The California Department of Transportation has reduced the speed limit on State Route 44 to 55 mph in hope of reducing collisions along the stretch of roadway. 

The California Department of Transportation lowered the speed limit from 65 mph to 55 mph on State Route 44 between Airport Road and Millville Plains Road near Redding, California after the stretch of highway near Silver Bridge Road was found to have high crash rates. 

According to Action News Now, studies show that areas of State Route 44 with lower crash rates also have lower speed limits, and Caltrans hopes that the change will improve driver safety. 

“60 to 75% of all of our crashes are all based on basically two things – speed and distracted driving,” said California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Jason Morton.

“This is one kind of interim measure we can do quickly and cost effectively but we will continue to actually work on other facility improvements at the same time,” said Toby Crawford with Caltrans District 2. “We have heard you know we have people that work here in our office that travel that every day, east of Redding and they travel that and they understand the slight inconvenience that that’s going to be but I think overall we appreciate the attempt at making this a safer facility.”

“Drivers should know that you know speed makes a big factor in the outcome of that crash. It could either be a non-injury crash or a fatality crash,” Officer Morton added. “It only takes a minute and 5 seconds difference to slow down for 10 miles per hour for the 6.5 miles. So you’re only saving one minute and 5 seconds.”