13 In an attempt to improve highway safety, Prunty County last year lowered its speed limit from 55 to 45 miles per hour on all county highways. But this effort has failed: the number of accidents has not decreased, and, based on reports by the highway pa

To reduce the number of accidents, the author suggests Prunty County to undertake the road improvement project as Butler County did five years ago, for the reasons that speed limitation is useless, as well as Butler County successfully controlled the number of accidents five years ago. At the first glance, this argument seems plausible, however, a close scrutiny reveals its untenability.

At the first place, the author cannot simply conclude that the new speed limit is useless according to the seemingly helpless outcome. On the one hand, although the number of accidents has not decreased, it does not mean the safety condition of highway has not increased. Even though the total number of accidents does not changed obviously, perhaps the accident rate has decreased significantly. On the other hand, the report of highway patrol about many drivers exceed the speed limit is inaccurate. The highway patrol does not provide specific data, and probably they just judge this condition according to their experience. Without the comparison of driving speed before and after implementation of lower speed limitation, the author cannot get the result that many drivers are exceeding the speed limit. The author also neglects a strong possibility that even assume many drivers are exceeding the speed limit, maybe more drivers obey the transportation standard after the speed limit is lowered. Thus, without the exact number of driving exceeding the limit before and after new standard, the author cannot assert lower speed limit is meaningless.

Secondly, there are many differences between Prunty County and Butler County, so that imitating the road improvement project cannot guarantee a better transportation condition of Prunty County. The major causes of too many accidents of Butler County five years ago may be the roads were too narrow, the road surface was too rough, or some dark intersections were dangerous. The improvement project solved those major problems, hence this project could be effective. If the major cause of accidents in Prunty County is that the car runs too fast, the new speed limit would be more effective than the same improvement project as Butler County. Therefore, without listing causes of accidents in Prunty County, whether the improvement project is meaningful is unknown.

Finally, the information about the current transportation condition is obscure. Firstly, even though the today’s speed limit is 55mph, the exact speed limit in the last year is unknown. The author overlooks a possibility that the speed limit in the last year is less than 55mph, so that there were fewer accidents. Secondly, the reported number of accidents in the last year decreased compared to the data five years ago, however, it does not mean that the actual number of accidents decreased. May be the reporters did not care about the accidents too much, or perhaps the total number of cars declined in the last year, so that the number of accidents decreased even though the accident rate remained constant.

In conclusion, the author fails to prove that the improvement project would be effective to reduce the accidents in Prunty County. To make the argument more persuasive, the author should provide more statistics about the exact number and rate of accidents before and after the speed limit was lowered. More information about the causes of accidents in both Prunty County and Butler County would also be appreciated.