Speed Limits Aren't Saving Lives, So Make Cars Slower

Speeding contributes to 13,000 US road deaths each year, and, at 30% of traffic fatalities, places only slightly behind alcohol, at 39%, Kent A. Sepkowitz writes in the New York Times. While preventing drunk driving is a complex problem requiring cooperation of motorists, police, and educators, speeding can be prevented easily: by making cars that cannot physically exceed the speed limit.

It wouldn't be that different from requiring helmets and seat belts, the argument goes, and as an added benefit, the slower cars would have better fuel efficiency. “Sure, it would take us longer to get from here to there,” Sepkowitz concludes. “But thousands of deaths a year are too great a cost for so adolescent a thrill as speeding.” (More car accident stories.)