A nighttime drive along Highway 83 through the Seeley and Swan Valley areas will now be a little slower – and hopefully safer, Montana Department of Transportation officials say.
<a href="http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/03/17/news/local/news04.txt" title="The Missoulian reported today that MDT reduced the nighttime speed limit on Highway 83″>The Missoulian reported today that MDT reduced the nighttime speed limit on Highway 83 earlier this month to 55 mph, from the 65 it’s been on most stretches of the two-lane highway for the past decade. The dangers of sharing the roads with wildlife, especially deer, are well known to anyone familiar with Montana highways, but the crash numbers for Highway 83 are particularly scary. According to statistics from an MDT study as reported by the Missoulian, there were:
1,445 deer carcasses found on or along the 88-mile stretch of highway in 2005, 2006 and 2007 – one every 18 hours;
231 reports of animal-vehicle collisions in that time;
and seven human fatalities because of animal-vehicle collisions in that time.