(KXNET) — On Thursday, Governor Doug Burgum vetoed his first bills of the legislative session.
One of them was the recently passed speed limit increase on the interstate.
House Bill 1475 was seeking to raise the speed limit by five miles on I-29 and I-94.
Governor Burgum vetoed the bill, arguing it goes against the goals of the state’s Vision Zero campaign seeking to end deadly crashes.
House lawmakers brought the bill back to reconsider that veto as the clerk read the governor’s reasons for trying to kill the bill.
“A study of the insurance institute of highway safety found that a five-mile-an-hour increase in the speed limit is associated with an 8.5% increase in crashes on highways and freeways,” clerk Mark Zimmerman read aloud from the Governor’s letter on Thursday.
House lawmakers opted to hold the bill for two days and act on it on Monday.
