Paging Sammy Hagar . . .

According to USA Today, there's a movement afoot to return the nation to a 55 mile-per-hour speed limit. It's driven (pun intended) by high (but falling) gas prices, the theory being that the slower you go the more efficient you are. Fine - but as someone who routinely logs a bunch of Interstate miles, I hope this doesn't go anywhere. Anybody can drive 55 and save gas if they want to, of course. And, it's worth noting, the highways haven't exactly run red since the double nickel bit the dust:

[GOP Va. Senator John] Warner says safety is a reason to lower speeds too. He points to a National Academy of Sciences finding that the law 'saved up to 4,000 lives per year from highway accidents.' Disputing that, opponents point to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's figures that show the rates of traffic fatalities and injuries have been declining for more than a decade. The fatality rate in 2007 was 1.37 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared with 1.69 in 1996.

The "slowing down X miles per hours will save Y lives" argument always reminds me of an old Bloom County where Milo is helping Opus with VP debate prep (from 1988):

MILO: I understand that my opponent supports the 55 MPH speed limit.

OPUS: Saves 500 lives a year! I fully support saving lives.

MILO: Then he'd support the saving of another 10,000 lives by lowering the limit to 40 MPH.

OPUS: 40?

MILO: Or to 20 . . . saving 30,000 lives a year.

OPUS: Gee . . . 20 is pretty slow.

MILO: Apparently my opponent would send 30,000 men, women and children to fiery, mangled deaths just so he can zoom along to his manicurist at 55.

OPUS: I don't have a manicurist!

MILO: He probably doesn't. Most mass murderers don't. Hitler didn't.

OPUS: Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! *bangs on the lectern*

MILO: Rebuttal?

OPUS: What?

MILO: Give your rebuttal.

OPUS: Uh . . . Bush is a wimp.

Opus then retreats the safety of the tub and consoles himself that even Reagan "never really sounded totally sober without note cards, either."

The point (aside from the political commentary, of course) is that safety is always a trade off fr convenience. If we all just stayed home every day, nobody would die in traffic accidents, regardless of the speed limit. Of course, we all eventually die of starvation, so pick your poison.