[renzop]

Problem with Lil Bastards argument is the erroneous belief that "speed kills". I will not deny that very high speeds produce more deaths then reasonable speeds.

But adherence to slow speed limits can be just as dangerous as exceeding them by 10-20 mph. There is a comfort zone that most drivers have and for an open 4 lane highway that comfot zone is about 70mph. Artificailly lowering that speed by arbitrary limits increases driver boredom significantly and results in an increase in accident rates.

So where do I get my conclusions?

A Unversity of Texas test of more than 200 drivers involved covering up speedometers and asking drivers to run 4 lane roads with little or no other traffic. Their overall average speed was 70mph.

When there was a National speed limit of 55 imposed traffic fatalaties per mile driven decreased significantly. This was hailed by safety advocates as proof that "speed kills" However when the ban was lifted and states began increasing speed limits FATALITIES PER MILE DECREASED AGAIN. So the "proof" that "speed kills" must be thrown out. Continuing decreases in death tolls point toward safer car design, increased seat belt usage, better road and signage design and decreased EMS response times. But DOES NOT say anything about the dangers of speed.

The public would be MUCH better served if safety advocates focused on better driver education in the forms of safe following distances, safety belt usage and keep right except to pass rules.

Tailgating at highway speeds is a major root cause of accidents yet since it is hard to prove after the accident occurs it is ignored in statistics. Yet it doesn't take a rocket scientist or statistician to realize the impact of have tenths of a second rather than 2 seconds to react to emergency that require sudden manuevers. With too short a time most drivers will overreact or not react at all. Overreactions result in spins and flips. No reaction results in high speed collisions.

Regards,
Alan