This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Posted: 12:15 PM- Utahns won't be able to drive faster legally, and they will not get a ticket for careless driving for tending to their makeup, fiddling with a cell phone or coping with a list of other distractions, thanks to House action on Wednesday.
House lawmakers unanimously rejected a bill that, when it passed the Senate, would have raised speed limits to 70 and 80 miles per hour.
In the Senate-passed form, it also would have allowed law enforcement officers to cite drivers who have an accident because they are distracted by eating, drinking, or smoking, physically attending to a passenger, searching for an item in the vehicle or attending to personal hygiene or grooming.
But House members criticized the faster speed limits as being unsafe and the careless driving provisions as intrusive.
"I think we are overdoing it here, representatives," said Kerry W. Gibson, R-Ogden.