Adrian Lund is the president of the Arlington, Va. based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He can be contacted at [email protected].It wasn’t surprising to read that a young male driver finds speed limits inconvenient [“Higher speed limits increase safety,” Oct. 16], but it’s unfortunate that someone majoring in history would be so lax with the facts.
The author claims that higher speed limits have led to a decrease in the overall fatality rate. Basing such a claim on the overall death rate on all types of roads makes no sense. Many factors have pushed down the fatality rate over time including safer vehicles and increased safety belt use. Correlating speed limits on some highways to what’s happening to overall traffic death rates on all roads is like using national precipitation figures to measure rainfall amounts from Hurricane Katrina.
You have to look at the specific roads where the speed limits changed to measure the effect. Study after study shows more highway deaths when speed limits are raised.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety research found 400 more deaths in 1989 alone on the roads where the limit was raised from 55 to 65 mph.
The author also is ignorant of the facts about the Autobahn. Research shows that from 1975 to 1986, before speed limits on rural interstates in this country began being raised from 55 to 65 mph, the death rate on the Autobahn was higher than on U.S. interstates. Germany also has more stringent laws including a 50-mph speed limit for large trucks and a driving age of 18. Young male drivers have by far the highest crash rates, so perhaps the author would consider raising the driving age to keep the most dangerous drivers in the U.S. off the road.
The bottom line is that safety is compromised, not enhanced, by higher speeds. There are plenty of opinions about speed limits. A discussion about raising them needs to be based on the facts.