Geographic Variations in Mortality from Motor Vehicle Crashes

To the Editor: Foege's rejection of a higher speed limit for rural interstate highways (May 28 issue)¹ is undermined by the unsurprising finding of Baker et al. (May 28 issue)² that “none of the federal interstate highways are distinguishable on the map as connecting a string of counties with high death rates.” The final blow is the uncited National Academy of Science study concluding that “states with high average speeds do not have higher fatality rates than states with low average speeds.”³ Highway engineers⁴ and those versed in history⁵ have long rejected the unfruitful “speed-kills” hypothesis. Ongoing improvements in highway….