Traffic laws should not lessen driver safety

Your Aug. 22 article tells it like it is concerning speeding on the interstate highways. Over 45 years ago, I was a safety education supervisor in the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Part of my job was as a guest lecturer in high school driver education classes. I handed out traffic safety literature for lectures, one of which was titled “Speed kills.” Today, we act as if we learned something new.

It is my understanding that the legislator who was the author of the bill that increased the speed limit to 70 mph spent his professional career as a state trooper enforcing traffic safety laws written to decrease traffic fatalities. A 30 percent increase in traffic accident deaths is a high price to pay after an increase in maximum speed from 65 mph.

I suggest your next investigation of traffic safety concern itself with the fourfold increase in traffic accidents as a result of cell phone use while car is in motion.

James R. Berry

Iowa City