Commissioners set uniform speed limit of 35 on county roads

Roads in Gonzales County that are maintained by the county will now have a maximum speed limit of 35 miles per hour after the court adopted an order altering the speed limits on Monday, June 26.

The order establishes a “maximum prima facie reasonable and prudent speed limit” of 35 mph for all county roads in Gonzales County and will allow law enforcement to enforce violations as Class C misdemeanors punishable by a fine of between $1 to $200 plus court costs in accordance with the Texas Transportation Code.

Commissioners held a public hearing at the Courthouse prior to adoption of the order, with only two people speaking up and both in favor of lowering speed limits due to concerns in their neighborhoods about people driving too fast.

“I had approached Commissioner La Fleur and asked that we get some reduction in speed or speed limit signs in our particular area around (County Roads) 284 and 436,” June Calendar said. “Our particular road has been paved and with the pavement came much more speed from the other vehicles and we have at least five blind corners on that street.

“And when they come out of those corners, sometimes they end up in people's fences, as (Judge Davis) might have had that happen a couple times. They’re blind corners; you can't see and the road is very narrow in some places, so I do believe that we need a speed limit posted so that our law enforcement officers can indeed address the issue.”

“My concern is the area around 381 and 354. At that particular corner, I believe 35 miles per hour is  too fast,” Alex Perez added. “I would like to know who we contact as far as a survey by the state to reduce the speeding even further, because right now, there is no control signal for 381, which slows the traffic now coming from that area to the T-intersection on 354.

“And I feel that's an extremely dangerous intersection. The road extremely narrows and there's culverts there, and there have already been accidents there and I believe 35 is extremely fast.”

Davis told Perez the court could have adopted a speed limit as low as 30 mph without needing a traffic survey conducted by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Donnie Brzozowski said he believes the county first should set the speed limits at 35 across the board and then monitor them to determine if further changes are needed.

“That way, we give our law enforcement officers the power so they can write tickets and it slows (the cars) down. I think we need to go ahead and go with the 35 and then see what happens and how traffic flows,” Brzozowski said.

A former DPS trooper, Davis said the next important step would be to make sure signs get posted as soon as possible because the signs serve as the prima facie (Latin for “based on first impression or face value”) evidence of the speed limit. Signs can run up to $100 each for the sign post and sign itself.

“If there's not a sign posted on there, even though it's 35, I guess it would actually be 60 even though it has been through court and set for 35,” Davis said. “So I guess if a person was to receive a ticket during the time that there was no posted sign for 35, then that would be a defense to prosecution.”

Calendar urged the court to consider putting money into the budget for signage for the new speed limits.

“I realize that signs are a cost for the county but I also realize we've had several accidents on our road and I think that's a cost the county should consider bearing,” she said.

Commissioners had an option to consider setting a speed limit of 20 miles per hour in any area that could be called an “urban district” on a county maintained road, but opted not to do so after indicating they were not sure what areas, if any, would qualify for the lower speed limits without extensive study.