shortage of 1973 congress pressured the states into adopting a maximum speed limit of 55 mph. The National Research Council attributed 4,000 fewer deaths to the lower speeds in 1974, compared with 1973. They also estimated there would be 500 more fatalities annually if they were to return to pre- 1974 speed limits. Speeds began to gradually increase on highways as concerns about fuel availability disappeared. In 1987, Congress allowed states to increase highway speed limits to sixty-five mph on an individual basis based on claims that the fifty-five mph law was too strict.Many believe that there is a strong positive correlation between speed limits and highway deaths. To aid their argument, these individuals quote that the higher speed limits introduced in 24 states during late 1995 and 1996 resulted in increase motor vehicle deaths during 1996 and 1997. In 1997, 41,967 people were killed in automobile accidents, while in 1996 42,085 people died. Based on these studies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates an increase in deaths on interstates and freeways of approximately 15 percent. Meanwhile, deaths didn’t increase at all on interstates and freeways in states where speed limits were not raised. “It’s clear from this study that the current round of speed limit increases on rural interstates in the 1980s is costing hundreds of lives a year,” says Insurance Institute For Highway Safety president Brian O’Neill. “This cost could go up in the future because research shows actual speeds continue to rise in the years following a speed limit change.” Advocates of lower speed limits assert that these increases are counteractive. “We know that when speed limits are raised,” O’Neil says, “drivers who exceeded the old speed limits will exceed the higher limits too, because people take note of the limits and then travel faster, at speeds a...
