They say everything is bigger in Texas. How about faster? The Texas House approved a measure that would raise speed limits to 75 mph on major divided highways. The bill would also eliminate night time speed limits. Currently, cities are barred from setting a speed limit higher than 60 mph on highways, and counties with large populations must keep speed limits under 70.
If the bill passes the senate and becomes law, the insurance industry will have to decide if they will raise premiums.
“When there is an increase of occurrences, accident, then rates go up. Conversely, and it happened before, when there are fewer accidents the rates go down,” said Leake.
Danny Leake, a Lubbock State Farm Insurance agent, says most people have a mind set of what folks feel safe driving and won’t go any faster.
“Some people are comfortable with that 70 and you can increase it to 90 and some people wont drive any faster than the 70 that they are presently doing at this time,” said Leake.
Although many drivers are excited about the increase speed limit others think it’s not such a good idea. Lubbock residents chimed in:
“Well there are too many young people on the road that don’t need to be driving 65 much less than 75.”
“I think that’s too fast.”
“The faster you go the more gas you use.”
“It’s going to hurt the gas mileage too. I drive 65 even though it’s 70 and I get 2 miles a gallon better gas mileage for doing that.”
Increasing gas prices may slow some people down, but Leake thinks safety has to be the number one priority.
“If in fact speed kills, we don’t get there then. It might help us get there a little faster, but one day we might not get there at all,” said Leake.
Whether you’re for increased speed limits or against, either way it’s safe to say Texas may soon be the fastest state in the United States.
The Vitellie Law Firm 
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