New York Times Op-Editorialist Dr. Kent A. Sepkowitz is an expert in infectious diseases and something of a professional essayist. Having dispensed with the “inexact science of penis length,” Sepkowitz is out to stop speeders. As you’d expect, he begins with a bit of statistical manipulation, or more, precisely, an accusation of same. “In Texas, in 2005, 3,504 people died in a traffic accident; 1,426 (about 41 percent) were considered speeding-related. In sharp contrast, for Florida, 3,543 died yet only 239 were considered speeding-related — about 7 percent. Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana and New Jersey, among other states, also report rates well below 20 percent. This variation is not just shoddy government work. With alcohol, for example, the 39 percent national rate varies only by a whisker when examined state to state (except for Utah’s admirable rate of 13 percent).” The bottom line for this non-expert expert: there ought to be a [new] law, ’cause speeding is dangerous and immature. “The technology to limit car speed has existed for more than 50 years — it’s called cruise control. In its common application, cruise control maintains a steady speed, but a minor adjustment would assure that vehicles, no matter the horsepower, never go past 75 miles per hour. This safety measure should be required of every new automobile, the same as seat belts, turning signals, brake lights and air bags. Sure, it would take us longer to get from here to there. But thousands of deaths a year are too great a cost for so adolescent a thrill as speeding.”
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OK, but can I keep my 0-60 in five seconds?
People don’t die from speed. They die from reckless speed. Going 80 mph in a straight line on a deserted Texas highway is relatively harmless. Going 45 mph in a 25 mph zone is asking for trouble—and no speed limiter will prevent that.
I don’t think that most municipalities in Texas would want that. A large number of them (the one I reside in included) derive the majority of their income from taxing non-residents for travelling through the municipality at un-sanctioned speeds.
If people were forced to drive the speed limit, this town would go broke.
On highways, speed limits are far more often a luxury tax than they are a safety issue.
Totally subjective, but I have seen far more wrecks caused by people driving under the speed limit than over.
On the one hand, this obviously won’t work because anyone who wants to speed regularly will simply pay their mechanic $50 to remove the speed limiter.
On the other hand, if it did work, what would cops do all day? Solve and prevent real crime? Right.
Given there will likely be a “bat phone” between the NYT Newsroom and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the event of an Obama administration, I find this article seriously scary.
I’m barely old enough to remember the gas lines from the 2nd oil crisis, but I have read the Obama platform carefully. By and large it’s just Jimmy Carter’s policies, reheated and spiced up with new technology. The case in point fits that bill to a tee. After all wasn’t the double nickel speed limit one of JC’s conservation spirited federal mantras?
More nanny-state intrusion. Whaddya expect from the NYT and their crowd?
mgrabo:
“After all wasn’t the double nickel speed limit one of JC’s conservation spirited federal mantras?”
That was Nixon. After the saving gas part became irrelevant, the safe nazis took over – ’55 is for safety’
I always have big problems with these type of statistics. Who decides if speeding was a factor? And just how do they determine that? I’m sure that there isn’t an in-depth accident recreation for every accident in the country, or even just the fatal ones.
Anyway isn’t every accident speed-related?
montgomery burns : Anyway isn’t every accident speed-related?
Give this man one million dollars.
If speeding stopped, would police departments make draconian budget cuts? Same goes for insurance who make money on the extra points they charge you for?
And because I am the first alec on the scene,
F=ma
Stopping quickly, that’s what’ll ail you.
“The technology to limit car speed has existed for more than 50 years — it’s called cruise control”
Yes, and it’s voluntary, as opposed to the “governor” programming in the ECU’s in many cars. (My ’97 Camaro V6 was limited to 115MPH – Tested and Confirmed)
Maybe you could voluntarily have the ECU in your 500HP Corvette programmed for a top speed of 75 MPH to get a massive insurance discount?
This is sham argument. Wrong on so many levels.. Germany, for instance. But domestically, it is not absolute number of deaths that matters but the rate, that is the number of deaths per population. If the good Dr. was honest, he’d favor mandating methods to prevent more significant causes of death, such as preventable infections (73,000 per year or or 5 x as common) and reduced by washing you hands/food. Poisoning is 4x more common, yet the Dr. hates the car. I’ll just paste the summary of the JAMA article in…
…Actual causes of [preventable] death. RESULTS: The leading causes of death in 2000 were tobacco (435 000 deaths; 18.1% of total US deaths), poor diet and physical inactivity (365 000 deaths; 15.2%) [corrected], and alcohol consumption (85 000 deaths; 3.5%). Other actual causes of death were microbial agents (75 000), toxic agents (55 000), motor vehicle crashes (43 000), incidents involving firearms (29 000), sexual behaviors (20 000), and illicit use of drugs (17 000). CONCLUSIONS: These analyses show that smoking remains the leading cause of mortality. However, poor diet and physical inactivity may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of death. These findings, along with escalating health care costs and aging population, argue persuasively that the need to establish a more preventive orientation in the US health care and public health systems has become more urgent.
I would love a VOLUNTARY speed limiter on my vehicles. I don’t drive above 80, my wife does not drive above 80, and I sure don’t want my kids, babysitters, valet parkers, and friends who borrow my car driving MY CAR above 80.
My work has several trucks for company use, and we would do the same for OUR TRUCKS as long as it was easy to do and could be swtiched out when the cars are sold again.
After some bad incidents involving childcare providers and speeding tickets, I posted messages asking for this kind of help on websites that discuss reprogramming your ECU. I received much ridicule as though I’m trying to take away someone’s rights. This is a real automotive service that I think A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR and that could help make the roads a little bit safer.
sounds like it was written by someone who lives in NY city and doesn’t own a car.
Many of the chip tuners that program ECU’s for VW, Audi and other turbo cars have a “valet” mode that reduces engine power and speed. I could see using this type of restriction in certain circumstances, such as teenage drivers.
But a govt. mandated speed limiter….you have got to be kidding.
Just as big factor in fatal accidents is seatbelt use.
And most fatal accidents occur outside of a restricted highway, late at night, and at 80 mph and without a seatbelt. I don’t see how a speed governor is going to help there. Going 60 down a country road at night is dangerous.
Totally subjective, but I have seen far more wrecks caused by people driving under the speed limit than over.
No, it’s not subjective at all.
See the plot of Deviation from Average Speed vs. Accident Involvement Rate from here:
http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2007/04/corzines_speedi.html
It is more dangerous to driver slower than the flow of traffic (not necessarily the speed limit).
The elephant in the room for automobile safety is the quality of the drivers operating the automobiles. In a land where CDL’s are required for delivery vans but Gramps can pilot his twenty-ton motor home on a Class D the ironies (and crashes) will abound. Even if you drive an airbag on wheels at fifteen miles an hour, some moron will figure out a way to kill you by driving badly.
Getting a driver’s license in Germany is hard. Same with Japan. Real school and tests and stuff. No renewals by mail either. Licensing standards in the USA are amazingly low. Adjusting the driver’s license “threshold” would far and away solve most car wrecks in this country. Demographics with well-earned reps for sketchy automobiling tend to vote however. Soccer moms vote, ditto for the old folks. Until that issue is addressed, Big Mother has no business making my car “safer” by neutering it.
Besides, what kind of moral authority does the US Government have to dictate safety to me anyways? These bums operate the space shuttle and think it’s “safe.”
How’m I gonna race my car on the weekends (at legal tracks) if it will only go 75 mph ?
TexasAg03: I love it when there are relevant statistics to back up my off-the cuff opinion. :)
paykan GT:
Yep…Sudden stops far more dangerous than speeding!
Reminds me of the movie Running Scared: “Deceleration Trauma” being used to describe a body after a 10-story fall.
Sounds to me like this guy doesn’t own a car. I have a friend of mine who lives in NYC, when he comes back to MI on vacation, I *never* let him drive because its like people there forget how after getting used to public transportation.
That being said, I’m all for tougher drivers training courses.
Its been talked about before and has been standard equipment on BMWs and hybrids…a real time “MPGmeter” should be required on all vehicles.
I remember a History Channel “Modern Marvels” episode on the Autobahn. During the episode, they showed statistics that stated that the Autobahn, despite having large parts with no enforced speed limits, were safer per driver per mile than the US interstate system. Even France and Denmark, with speed limits of 80 mph, have lower deaths per driver per mile than the US. It really comes down to how good the driver is.
Wanna bet that this guy takes the subway to work.
This is so much penny wise and pound foolish bull.
Who cares how long you process food into waste and take up space on the planet if you have to live in a prison of regulation the whole time?
I am no anarchist, but if they go to far, I could become one. So long as the nannies show some restraint, so will I.
What if the apparatus of the state (AoS) goes completely off the rails (if I may mix metaphors), and you are forced to flee from said apparatus. Now what if the AoS is pursuing you at 76 mph despite your protestations of innocence?
This idea has so many bad foreseeable consequences that the unforeseen consequences must spectacular.
Mercedes, BMW, and Audi have been shipping speed-limited cars for years. Sure, the speedometer goes to 160 MPH, but the car’s electronics will intervene at 155.
On a more serious note, I remember some law in the 80’s (70’s?) mandating that speedometers only go to 85 MPH. Were those cars also speed-limited to 85? Or was it the case that once you hit 85 then you couldn’t even tell how fast you were going?
You know, I hate making my own decisions. I have hoped and prayed that eventually the day would come when a nanny, whoops, I mean computer, would watch me like a hawk and decide what is best for me. But there aren’t many like me. Most outgrow this stage of immaturity when the exit the womb and realize they were blessed with the gift of free will.
And, oh what a wonderful gift it is! So wonderful, in fact, that it should not be overtaxed. It needs to be protected by computers who, as everyone is aware, are far more intelligent than Man./sarcasm
If this shit ever becomes mandated I’m going to be PISSED.
Great idea!!!
And because I’m a believer in Federalism and in states acting as laboratories to test out laws, I suggest the Old Gray Mare push to have New York be the testbed. That should pretty much remove the need to deliver the NYT to the mostly mid-western (in outlook) part of the state that is more than 50 miles from Manhattan. I’m in favor of anything that gets the Times to bankruptcy quicker.
Wonder if that Wilkinson feller would have anything to say about this idea?
This bonehead seems to miss the mark on the 75 MPH limiter he proposes. Not all speeding occurs on the highway. Last I checked, 75 MPH would be quite the clip through my neighborhood. I’m not worried about someone speeding on the highway if they’re not driving recklessly. I’m more worried about idiots swerving onto the sidewalk through the neighborhood or center of town. Or ignoring the pedestrians in the crosswalk while chewing/talking/texting.
Statistics manipulation is an art, as he so effectively demonstrates. I really couldn’t tell you what his percentages comparison is a picture of though. Maybe he needs a better frame.
Some would choose to regulate us within an inch of our lives. He’s just one more to join the list, along with NHTSA, MADD, etc. Where is that Libertarian party when you need ’em?
According to his stats, Germany should be dead by now.
The two wrecks I’ve been involved in occurred at speeds below 45 mph, at or below the posted speed limit. Both cases (one I was a passenger, the other I was driving but both times the other party was at fault) involved stupid driving on the part of the ones who caused said crashes. One was someone pulling out in front of us, the other, some minors in a stolen SUV crossed 3 lanes of traffic in front of me.
I lived through the 55-mph national speed limit. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now. I’m all for safety, but unnecessary, unenforceable laws aren’t going to keep morons off the road. Hasn’t the accident rate actually decreased in recent years after raising the speed limit back up?
I agree that the PD in my town would have nothing to do if it weren’t for speed traps.
I actually would like to go faster, not slower, as long as it’s safe and cheap.
I propose modern ways to prevent accidents: sophisticated electronics, computers and radar.
Cars equipped with the proper sensors can do a lot: know where other cars are, how fast you can safely drive through bad weather, what kind of corner is 10 seconds ahead of you, etc.
We are probably not too far off car technology that can prevent accidents altogether, no matter what speed.
Let’s focus on that.
watersketch,
There’s a simpler solution: Don’t let anyone borrow your car. Hide the keys if you have to. Scared about valets (if they had the time or place to go anywhere at 80 with your car; even hard acceleration is near impossible in most parking lots), then park on the curb. If your kids really need to get some place fast, without you driving, then feed ’em some bus fare.
Problem solved. Government intervention not needed. Electronic nannies not required. Funny thing is, it’s free as well.
@limmin
People don’t die from speed. They die from reckless speed. Going 80 mph in a straight line on a deserted Texas highway is relatively harmless. Going 45 mph in a 25 mph zone is asking for trouble—and no speed limiter will prevent that
definitely, besides how does this guy know that all the deaths or even a large portion of them were because the driver was going above 75mph?
Trucks and busses in Europe are required to have a speedlimiter. And policing is simple. The only people who speed are those who’s speedlimiter “malfunctions” so you check those vehicules.
About European accident rates. The 16 to 18 year group can’t drive and there are fewer old cars on the road (>15years) due to legal reasons
“In Texas, in 2005, 3,504 people died in a traffic accident; 1,426 (about 41 percent) were considered speeding-related.
Speeding related? What does use of the word related mean? This is similar to accidents that are deemed alcohol-related. It’s simply a method to pad the numbers (statistics) by using the word “related” to impugn some possible relationship to cause that may or may not exist.
Case in point: If I get into an accident, say … someone runs a stop sign and hits me. Suppose I was just coming home from lunch and had 1 beer (blood alcohol level 0.02 … well below the legal limit of 0.08). Well folks — what we have here is an alcohol-related accident. Wasn’t my fault, the other person wasn’t drinking at all, yet here we have a crash that happened between 2 parties where one of them was drinking. So the government writes it up as an alcohol related crash.
This is the type of nonsensical statistics that governments collect and publish and that organizations like MAAD use to pad their statistics in their public campaigns against drunk driving. It’s complete nonsense and really amounts to lying to the public. If I’m perfectly sober and hit a drunk driver and kill him — that would not only be an alcohol-related accident, but an alcohol related highway death. So, rather than telling us how many accidents drunk drivers actually cause, and how many deaths drunk drivers (over the legal limit) really cause on the highways, we get these padded statistics by use of the word “related”. It allows organizations to make the problem look worse than it really is and sell more regulation to public through the fraudulent use of statistics that don’t mean what they are implied to mean.
But domestically, it is not absolute number of deaths that matters but the rate, that is the number of deaths per population.
I’d like to correct that. The standard benchmarks is fatalities per vehicle miles traveled, which takes into account the population and vehicle usage.
The funny thing about using Florida as a contrast to Texas is that according to NHTSA, Florida had a higher fatality rate than Texas during every year between 1994 and 2006, except for in 2003 when they tied. In most years, Texas outperformed Florida significantly.
Not only that, but Florida also performed below the 50 state + DC national average for every year of that 13 year period. Using Florida as a standard would increase the national fatality rate by 15-33% per year, which would be a good thing only if you have a death wish.
Florida’s stats are an anomaly. Florida’s police uses a “catch all” called “careless driving.” Because of that, they badly underreport speed-related fatalities.
Even then, however, “speed-related” is meaningless for two reasons:
1. They falsely presume the validity of speed limits. Simply being over the limit = “speed-related” even if the speed was not dangerous.
2. “Related” is not the same as “caused by.” A crash can be speed-related when the speed did not cause it. Just one vehicle has to be “speeding,” and whamo, it’s speed-related.
Fit limiters and within a matter of weeks someone willl come up with a solution on how to bypass them. A total waste of time and energy – cars dont kill it’s the idiot behind the wheel that causes accidents