The recent congressional action revoking the national maximum speed limits has rekindled the debate over safety and travel time tradeoff. The effect of speed limit increases on the most severe occupant injury in a crash is analyzed here. Single-vehicle crashes on Interstate highways in North Carolina ( N = 2729) are examined. Two analysis methods are used: a paired-comparison analysis and an ordered probit model. Increasing speed limits from 88.5 to 96.6 km/h (55 to 60 mph) and from 88.5 to 104.6 km/h (55 to 65 mph) increased the probability of sustaining minor and nonincapacitating injuries, but increasing speed limits from 104.6 to 112.7 km/h (65 to 70 mph) did not have a significant effect on crash severity. There were too few fatal crashes to draw conclusive results for this category of injury severity. Crashes involving the face of a guardrail were more severe on segments where the speed limit was raised than on comparison segments or study segments before the limits were increased. These findings may be conservative because study segments with good safety records were chosen for the speed limit increases.


    Access

    Download

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Effect of Speed Limit Increases on Crash Injury Severity: Analysis of Single-Vehicle Crashes on North Carolina Interstate Highways


    Additional title:

    Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    1999-01-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Effect of Speed Limit Increases on Crash Injury Severity: Analysis of Single-Vehicle Crashes on North Carolina Interstate Highways

    Renski, H. / Khattak, A. J. / Council, F. M. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999


    Injury severity of single-vehicle weather-related crashes on two-lane highways

    Al-Bdairi, Nabeel Saleem Saad / Zubaidi, Salah L. / Zubaidi, Hamsa et al. | Taylor & Francis Verlag | 2024



    Temporal instability of factors affecting injury severity in single-vehicle crashes on rural highways

    Wang, Yaping / Wei, Fulu / Guo, Yanyong et al. | Taylor & Francis Verlag | 2025