
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995                   TAG: 9506300113
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

U-TURN ON ROAD SAFETY

HAS CONGRESS gone bonkers over states' rights? It would appear so from the Senate vote last week to scrap the national 65 mph speed limit for automobiles on federally financed highways - despite Transportation Department projections that nearly 5,000 more highway deaths will result each year. (Last year's highway death count was 40,676.)

Even worse than lifting the speed limit, proposals are still being discussed in Washington to retreat from efforts to promote the use of safety belts and motorcycle helmets, which have saved many thousands of lives.

The rationale, it seems, is that citizen safety isn't the federal government's business. What next? Dismantle national security? In the event war is declared on America, each state could decide if it wants to participate in the country's defense.

Politicians supporting elimination of national highway safety standards need a crash course in reality:

Speed is blamed for one-third of all fatal highway crashes. As a contributing factor, it is second only to alcohol (and often speed and drunken driving are combined). When, to conserve fuel during the energy crisis of the early 1970s, a 55 mph speed limit was applied in all states, highway fatalities dropped by 16 percent. After the limit was raised to 65 on rural interstates in the '80s, fatalities on these roadways increased by more than 20 percent.

Over the past 10 years, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, use of safety belts has prevented 55,600 deaths and 1.3 million serious injuries; motorcycle helmets have prevented 6,400 deaths and 25,400 injuries; child-passenger safety devices have prevented 2,000 deaths and 27,000 injuries. Minimum 21 drinking-age laws have saved 14,000 lives and prevented 121,000 injuries.

The total social cost of speed-related crashes is more than $10 billion a year. Cost of all motor-vehicle crashes is tens of billions more. These costs include medical expenses, insurance administration, legal and court fees, property losses, job-productivity losses and lost tax revenues. Says U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena: Abolish or weaken existing highway safety measures and expect to add about $18 billion a year to the bill.

In a bow to safety advocates, the Senate narrowly voted to keep the current mandatory speed limit - 55 mph in urban areas and 65 mph on rural stretches of roads - for big trucks and buses. That may be a hollow gesture, since many truckers routinely drive faster than the speed limit.

The momentum for the limit's repeal has mostly come from sparsely populated Western states, which have argued since 1974 that faster speeds are justified in their wide, open spaces. They went into high gear this year, claiming the federal rules of the road are ``unfunded mandates'' - a hot button pushed on everything from environmental protection to welfare reform. (In Virginia, Gov. George Allen even cites it as cause to block a federal law to increase voter registration.)

Of course, if the House goes along with the Senate, states could still keep the 65 mph limit in place. It would be nice if most states, Virginia included, would wisely do so, since for many people it could prove a matter of life or death. Unfortunately, state legislatures are as much in lobbyists' clutches as Congress is, and - like Congress - can't be counted on to always go in sensible directions.

by CNB