[SLB]

What is the New Zealand government doing a speed limit study in the USA for?

[_Jim]

From:

Traffic Safety Facts 2002 - www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSFAnn/TSF2002EE.pdf

From pg iii We find:

The mission of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is to reduce deaths, injuries, and economic losses from motor vehicle crashes.

In 2002, the Nation's crash fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles of travel reached an historic low of 1.51.

Although this significant event is the result of much progress in reducing the number of deaths and injuries on our Nation's highways, total fatalities increased just slightly in 2002, reaching the highest level since 1990.

So, with an increasing population we will naturally get a larger "total fatalities" figure if the fatality rate per mile per person remains roughly the same; obviously, this figure is going down.

[KOZ.]

some here have posted about the conflict of interest between the people that are doing the study. the insurance and local police forces and 'catch speeders', those evil people doing 65-80mph, have nothing but a mob mentality in extorting your money. many places show (ie simply looking at the autobahn) that higher speed limits makes safer driving. here is a great organization that fights this machine.... http://www.motorists.org

[Teacher317]

determined 1,880 more people died between 1996 and 1999 in the 22 states with higher speed limits.

Four years... times 22 states... 1880 divided by 88... that's 22.3636 more per state per year... less than two more deaths per month per state... less than one ACCIDENTAL death every two weeks. THIS is the minutiae that they are arguing about? They'll curtail freedom further for 0.43 ACCIDENTAL deaths per week for an entire state?!?

So when do they start blotting out the sun for all of those unintended skin cancer deaths?

[Junior]

The study, compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and based on data collected by the Land Transport Safety Authority of New Zealand, determined 1,880 more people died between 1996 and 1999 in the 22 states with higher speed limits.

Only 28 additional deaths per state per year...

[cinFLA]

In California, where the speed limit is 70 mph, one in five drivers was clocked at 80 mph.

Huh? I had to speed up to 85 just to blend into the slow lane today after cruising along on cruise control in the middle lane at 75.

[TankerKC]

The study, compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and based on data collected by the Land Transport Safety Authority of New Zealand, determined 1,880 more people died between 1996 and 1999 in the 22 states with higher speed limits.

1880 more than what? The other 28? What are the states? Apples/Oranges at best.

[Mulder]

I'm guessing that most of those wrecks were caused by bozos who still insisted on only driving 55 MPH on a highway.

[Sabertooth]

How many fatalities are caused by oivercrowded roads as a result of bureaucrats choking highway funding in favor of public transportation swindles?

[Snuffington]

I think we should all get out and just push our cars - and NO running allowed either! Think of the lives we'd save.

... This message brought to you by your surrogate mommy - like it or not - the Nanny state.

[crv16]

The report didn't examine the effects of other trends, such as the increasing number of sport utility vehicles on the road then.

If you're travelling 80mph in a SUV, emergency maneuvers are far more risky than in a sedan. Braking distances are typically longer as well. Not to mention the "invincibility" factor people feel when driving SUV's.

I drive over 40,000 miles per year, often in crappy weather. More times than not, when you see vehicles off the road as the result of an accident, they are SUVs. Especially when the roads are snowy/icy.

I'd guess that the majority of the increases in death rates is due to the switch to SUV's.

SUV drivers think they are safer, but statistics disprove that. In 2002, there were 59 driver deaths per million miles for SUVs where a single vehicle was involved. Compare that to 37 for cars. When the accident type was a single vehicle rollover, it's 47 to 18, when comparing SUVs to cars. When multiple cars are involved in an accident, it's more advantageous to be in a SUV (duh). There, the SUV occupant dies at a rate of 31/ddmm compared to 46/ddmm for cars. When you average it all out, all crash types, cars are statistically safer. 83/ddmm compared to 88/ddmm for SUVs.

http://www.hwysafety.org/safety_facts/fatality_facts/passveh.htm