This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Recently, Utah Department of Transportation officials discussed the causes of I-15 crashes in a front page Tribune article. It was shocking to read that there were 2,400 accidents in just the northbound lanes in 2013 to 2015 between Draper and Salt Lake City. The number of deaths from these accidents was not mentioned. UDOT reported that 94 percent of crashes are caused by driver behavior and distracted drivers. Rear-end collisions were common.

Conspicuously absent from the article was how speeding drivers and raising the speed limit by UDOT contributed to these accidents. Several days before speed limits were raised to 70 miles per hour in December 2014, four physicians from Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment met with a UDOT engineer. Included in this group were two emergency physicians and a trauma surgeon.

UPHE presented UDOT with 15 articles from medical and safety journals documenting increased accidents when speed limits are raised. One such study by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program found that increasing the speed limit from 55 to 65 mph on an "average" section of high speed road resulted in about a 3 percent increase in the total number of crashes and a 24 percent increase in the likelihood that a vehicle occupant would be fatally injured.

When speed limits were raised from 65 to 75 mph, the total number of crashes increased by 0.64 percent, increasing the probability of a fatality by 12 percent. Other studies have found a 35 percent increase in fatalities in states with 70 mph speed limits and 38 percent increase in fatalities in states with 75 mph speed limits.

When UPHE inquired about the rationale for raising the speed limit, we were told that raising the speed limit to 80 mph near Beaver didn't increase the number of accidents. We were also told that people are driving that fast anyway. It was troubling that the speed limit was raised to accommodate drivers breaking the law.

A conservative prediction is that whatever the speed limit is, 20 percent or more drivers will be driving faster than the posted speed. Increased speed limits and the resultant disparity in driving speeds is intimidating to elderly drivers. There have been numerous times when I was driving the speed limit through congested areas in Utah County when cars were passing me on both sides.

UPHE asked UDOT to look at the data in the articles that we gave them. We also asked them to query public opinion or hold a public meeting before raising the speed limit. No public meetings were ever held. Within a few weeks of our meeting, the speed limit was raised to 70 through congested interstate areas. The opinion of four physicians concerned about public safety mattered little to UDOT. UDOT was not basing their plan on available data. I wondered if boosting the fossil fuel industry was part of their rationale. Fuel consumption is increased 22 percent when speed increases from 55 to 75mph.

I wonder how UDOT acquires such autonomy, arrogance and poor judgment. My understanding is that the Utah Highway Patrol was also against raising the speed limit. It seems obvious that UDOT has "blood on their hands."

Now that increasing accidents have been well documented, it would seem wise to return speed limits to a safer speed. Why not create variable speed limits in congested zones, like are done on I-80 through Parleys Canyon?

On high smog days when visibility is limited, the speed limit could be further reduced. In addition to lower speed limits, another way to increase safety would be to double the speeding fines in areas known to have high accident rates.

Howie Garber, M.D., is a board member of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.