Higher Speed Limits Exact Toll in Lives and Injuries.
It has been over a decade since Congress lifted the 55 mph speed limit on interstate highways. According to Lee S. Friedman, PHD, of the University of Illinois and the Social Policy Research Institute in Skokie, Ill, researches found that since the lift traffic fatalities, nationwide, have increased by 3.2%
According to Friedman, the increased speed limit on interstate highways caused 12,545 deaths and 36,583 injuries, in the decade after the federal government gave up control of the 55 mph speed limit.
Friedman and his collegues reported in the American Journal of Public Health that if speed limits were reduced and enforcement improved, it would save lives immediately.
"This 10 year experiment of increased speed limits in the U.S. is a failed experiment," Dr. Friedman said. He believes that posted speed limits on interstate highways should be turned back to 55 mph.
This would also reduce the amount of gasoline drivers would use, reduce the amount of air pollution emitted from vehicles and reduce societal costs of crashes, particularly the expenses associated with emergency care.
In 1974 the Federal Governement, in response to a 1973 oil embargo, reduced the nation's speed limit to 55 mph. The first year of the 55 mph speed limit saw a reduction in deaths caused by vehicular crashes by 16.4%
Congress returned control of the roadways back to the states in 1995, after the end of the fuel crisis. All states have increased the speed limits for rural interstates and several states have raised the speed limit in urban areas as well.
