Deaths Up 19% on Highways Where Speed Limit Was Raised to 65

Fatalities increased by 19% on rural highways on which the speed limit was raised to 65 m.p.h., an increase nearly three times as high as in states that kept the limit at 55, a government study has found.

The study, released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is the first of three annual reports since Congress voted in April, 1987, to allow states to raise the speed limit to 65 m.p.h. on highways passing through rural areas.

The study involved 38 states that raised the speed limit in 1987 and 10 states that did not. The report noted that all rural interstate fatalities increased in 1987 over 1986.

The number of fatalities in the states that stayed with 55 m.p.h. increased by 7%, a significantly lower increase than in those states that raised the speed limit.

Traffic safety officials cautioned that the higher speed limit has not been in effect long enough to measure its long-term impact on highway safety.