Trucks will continue rolling down rural Illinois interstates at 55 mph after a bill that would have upped the limit to 65 mph was defeated.

The Illinois House of Representatives struck down the chance to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s veto on a bill. Blagojevich cited safety concerns as the reason he vetoed the bill, said Matt Vanover, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Despite the failed attempt of Senate Bill 2374, some said a similar bill could be passed as early as one year from now.

“We are looking to see if it’s worth bringing back for a third year,” State Rep. Bob Pritchard, R-Hinckley, said. “It has been passed and vetoed [by the governor] in ’03 and ’04.”

The bill passed through the Illinois House and Senate during the spring legislative session before Blagojevich vetoed it. It went to the House last week, but was able to get only 49 of the 71 votes it needed to become a law.

In spring, a bill that will nearly triple the cost of tolls for truckers in Illinois was passed. That bill is effective at the start of the new year.

“The fact is that [the state] is charging the truckers more,” said Don Schaefer, executive vice president of the Mid-West Truckers Association. “An increased speed limit would offer an incentive for truckers to stay on the tollway.”

Illinois is one of only 10 states without a uniformed speed limit for trucks and smaller vehicles, Schaefer said.

“We’ve been an advocate of a uniformed speed limit for years,” Schaefer said. “There aren’t a lot of happy truck drivers in Illinois that want to get on those tollway roads right now.”

With increased worries that some truckers will move to secondary roads, Schaefer said providing an increased speed limit on interstates might have deterred some of them from switching over.

Others said the safety risks of an increased truck speed limit outweigh the positives.

“It takes about 40 percent longer for a truck driving at 65 mph to come to a complete stop,” Vanover said. “The impact of a truck colliding with a smaller vehicle at 65 mph is 40 times greater than at 55 mph.”

Even though Pritchard voted in favor of the bill, he said safety was still a top priority of his.

“I support the uniformed speed bill. It’s hazardous when you have two vehicles with different speed limits on the same road,” Pritchard said.