25 years ago: Rural highway fatalities down in Kansas

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for August 5, 1989:

Despite a recent report that the national switch to a 65 mph speed limit had caused more deaths on rural interstates across the U.S., the number of highway deaths in Kansas had actually dropped in the last year, according to state figures. Congress had raised the speed limit from 55 mph to 65 mph in 1987 for rural interstates and other four-lane rural highways meeting certain criteria, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had told a U.S. House panel last week that there had been 2,485 deaths on rural interstates, 634 more than the average number. However, a Kansas Department of Transportation official said this week that the Kansas figures did not reflect that trend. “The fatalities have dropped,” said Patrice Pomeroy, public information officer for KDOT. “We didn’t see a substantial increase after the speed limit did go up.” Pomeroy also explained that the number of fatalities on rural interstates tended to fluctuate widely from year to year. “Accidents are such random things, it’s very difficult to pinpoint causes…. In any accident you’re going to have a variety of factors.” She also pointed out the increase in seat-belt use in Kansas as a possible factor for the decrease in fatalities. Before the state’s seat belt law had gone into effect on July 1, 1988, only 14 percent of the state’s drivers had been in the habit of buckling up; after the law was enacted, the number went up to 60 percent, Pomeroy said.