68-M.P.H. Limit Set for Motorists : Italy Puts the Brakes to Passion for Speed

ROME — Speed is as Italian as spaghetti, but it is now as unwelcome on Italian highways as soggy pasta at Mama’s dinner table.

And this is showdown weekend: 7.5 million vacationers’ cars a day on the superstrade versus 320 infernal boxes designed to slow them down with instant photographic evidence of speeding, followed by fines of $150 to $600.

“An outrage!” snapped Paolo Bompard, a Roman who owns a classic Alfa Romeo that was fun to drive till the bureaucrats hit the brakes. “I can’t even get into fifth gear at 110. My plugs will foul!”

The legal speed on Italian roads for the rest of this summer is 110 kilometers an hour. That is around 68 m.p.h., fast enough perhaps by American standards but an affront to Italians accustomed to a speed limit of 140 k.p.h., about 87.5 m.p.h.

Overnight last week, Public Works Minister Enrico Ferri challenged Italy’s love affair with fast cars by decreeing the new speed limit--in what he called the interests of safety.

‘We Must Sound an Alarm’

“Drivers must understand that at peak periods it is not possible to rush about crazily,” Ferri said. “We must sound an alarm. Accidents happen because people drive too fast.”

The new limit won the quick approval of Italian environmentalists, as well as public figures and a surprisingly large number of motorists.

All Italy is on the road these summer weeks as cities empty for vacations that leave most West European capitals to the foreign tourists. Traffic jams, which ensnare sun-seeking tourists from all over Europe, are legendary. The carnage is dreadful. Last Wednesday, 19 people died on Italy’s highways, and another 456 were injured. On the same day a year ago, 21 died and 588 were injured.

Ferri’s decree, which is termed experimental and is scheduled to expire Sept. 11, is being enforced by about 7,000 highway policemen using 41 helicopters and eight spotter aircraft, along with the 320 picture-taking speed guns. Last Sunday, the first Sunday under the new regulations, they caught 6,000 speeders.

To some people in this country, where family men driving a sedate 80 m.p.h. are accustomed to being overhauled by impatient Ferraris and Maseratis going twice that fast, the new restrictions smack of government meddling.

Accident Toll Down

Speeds have come down in the first days of the new limit, and so has the accident toll. In the first four days of last week there were 72 road deaths in Italy, compared to 96 for the same period a week earlier, according to the police.

Still, complaints are as loud as the cheers. Twenty members of Parliament protested. The West German government, which imposes no speed limit, complained that its tourists in Italy are being unfairly fined without adequate warning. Last week, multilingual signs were hung at Italy’s frontier road-crossings to alert foreigners to the new restriction.

“It’s too simple to say that reducing speeds reduces deaths on the road,” said Rosario Alessi, president of the Automobile Club of Italy. “If this were the case, halving the speed limit would halve the deaths. By this criteria we should all stay at home to reach a zero mortality rate.”

Angelo Cresco, an undersecretary at the Transport Ministry, charged that Ferri’s decree--”Operation Tortoise,” some call it--was a publicity stunt.

To cut down on casualties, Cresco said, the government should go after drunk drivers and join most of the rest of the First World in requiring the use of auto seat belts.

There was a time when such tedious impediments to Italian brio might have seemed unthinkable, but last week, even amid the complaints, a certain uncommon caution seemed to be creeping onto Italy’s roads.