Safety on Texas’ interstate highways receives constant media attention. From issues such as truck safety and seat belt requirements, the highways remain a focal point of scrutiny and federal funds. As vehicle miles traveled (VMT) continue to increase, there is little hope that Texans will be giving up their sport utility vehicles anytime soon. Therefore, the attention must be towards strategies to establish policies that enhance safety while not hindering mobility. This project seeks to determine if the increase in speed limits from 1996 to 1999 resulted in an increase in fatal accidents in Texas. The data focused on a select set of variables and the data from Texas will be compared to nationwide figures in order to determine if there were any similarities in the number of fatal accidents. (Author/publisher)
Abstract