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Re: The great speed and safety myth
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Subject: Re: The great speed and safety myth
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From: broerd@kaos.gsfc.nasa.gov (Dirk Broer)
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Date: 26 Jun 1995 09:33 EST
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Distribution: world
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News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41
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Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving
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Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- Greenbelt, Maryland USA
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References: <DAn1qG.Bun@dcs.ed.ac.uk> <sheldon.803945333@esoteric.agron.iastate.edu>
In article <sheldon.803945333@esoteric.agron.iastate.edu>, sheldon@iastate.edu (Steve Sheldon) writes...
>In <DAn1qG.Bun@dcs.ed.ac.uk> dcc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (David Crooke) writes:
>
> There was a guy from the US Insurance Institute the other day on NPR who
>stated that when the speed limit went from 55 to 65 on rural interstates the
>accident rate went up 20%.
>
> I was rather surprised.
>
Yeah, from 5 people getting killed to 6 - an extra person in the car....
Bottom line - any change in death rate is basically statistically meaningless.
Car and Driver published reports that said in all but like two states the death
rate went down. Also now, years after the change, the death right continues to
decline.
The insurance companies don't want higher speed limits. That means less
tickets, which in turn means less revenue for them. Hard as it may seem to
believe, but they are in the business to make a profit.
Dirk
References: