Eric Eckstrom sent the following letter
(response sent from mail@cartalk.com).

Dear Click and Clack,

I usually enjoy your show but am somewhat taken aback by the unwarranted continuous ridicule of Montana's speeding laws. In the almost one year since Montana reverted to its own law instead of the federal speed limit laws, there has been no mention in the national media (that includes you-although I found this Web site under a "cultural" link on the NPR Web page!?!) of the highway accident and death statistics. What happened to the "blood bath" you and many others predicted? Why has it not been reported by many outside the state of Montana that the death rate on Montana's highways has actually DECREASED since the federal law was lifted? Can't 'fess up to being wrong?

By the way, I heard some idiot from Helena, Montana (our capital city), misinform you that the legislature met in special session to change the law. What a bunch of horse hockey! The law merely reverted to what had been on the books prior to the federal 55-mile-an-hour law!

Last summer we even had some joker from Texas with nothing better to do with his time and money than buy his own radar gun and survey our state's roadways. Of course such an event made it into all of Montana's newspapers. Nobody was really surprised that the fastest speeds he recorded were blue suburbans with federal license plates in the Great Falls area (a coincidence that it's near Malmstrom AFB?). The next highest were vehicles licensed by our esteemed neighbors to the north, Canada; then came out-of-state drivers; and the slowest drivers on Montana's roads were licensed in Montana!

It is rare that I find myself on a soapbox, but I appreciate the opportunity provided by you to do so. Whatever you do...DON'T DRIVE LIKE MY SISTER!

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