Raise Limit to 65 M.P.H.?

So now the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans want to increase the speed limits! So what’s the big deal? Ninety percent of all freeway motorists drive over 55 anyway and the Highway Patrol is unable to control this current speed limit, so the only solution is to turn them loose.

Forget the fact that records prove 2,000 to 4,000 lives were saved each year, and more than 167,000 barrels of oil were also saved every day under the 55-m.p.h. limit.

The strong advocates of a higher speed limit and their lobbyists apparently have decided this was the time to force the issue. The current oil glut plus lower highway fatalities these past few years has given them all the leverage needed to renew strong interest in a higher speed limit.

So back to the highway carnage and greater consumption of our precious energy resources. A new 65-m.p.h. law will mean 70 or 72 will probably be acceptable--just as 60 or 62 is now under the 55-m.p.h. limit. And the Highway Patrol will find it even harder to control than this more sensible limit of 55 m.p.h.

CLARENCE W. HAYWARD

Los Angeles