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The death rates in those states will go

It will be interesting to watch the crash statistics, as I have done for insurance companies since '68.

Take seat belts, for example. The 3 states with the weakest seat belt laws have the lowest fatality rates. Why? The evidence points to the fact that when people do not place their trust in the magical powers of some inanimate object they are more likely to accept that they are responsible for the avoidance of a crash.

So one key question is how a change in the speed laws affects the drivers belief that he is responsible for avoiding a crash vs it is not his responsibility. Is part of that a good advertising campaign? Is part of it the impartation of certain values from his parents?

Another key question is how the slow drivers react. A significant portion of crashes occur when a driver does not keep up with traffic and blocks traffic. The impatient get frustrated and start to shift lanes to move up in the line. The people who are passed by the impatient then get po'd. It gradually escalates into road rage or some other attitude that leads to crashes.

Another factor is whether the police will shift from an emphasis on speeding tickets to enforcing the truly dangerious drivers, especially the DUIs. Statistics consistently show that whereas seatbelts are meaningless, the reduction in DUI drivers through strict enforcement has a major impact on a reduction in crashes of all severities, including fatalities.

Thank you for responding to my post. There are a couple of things about auto safety that I have heard and found interesting.

First, crash statistics supplied by the auto industry versus government versus insurance tests are not accurate or consistent because some measure head-on crash results. By contrast, most "head on" crashes are really not directly head-on and only those tests which use angled "head-on" results are reflective of real life.

Secondly, Fred Barnes said that the dirty little secret of improved mpg was that newer cars are smaller and made of lighter weight metal. As a result of these changes of the early 1970's, 55,000 more people have died in auto accidents. This was during a time when the speed was generally 55. I don't know what the effect of increasing the speed limit was but, given smaller and lighter cars, the result could not have been positive.

The damage caused by weight on concrete at different speeds is also not discussed; however, damaged roads versus newer roads also must produce different fatality rates. I know that different semi truck designs do different amount of damage to concrete. Adding 1" more thickness of concrete would also improve the durability and consequently, fatality rates on highways but no one wants to take on the cost of that.