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Coming to Texas: 85mph Speed Limit?

Would once again give Texas the highest speed limit in US
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2011 7:48 AM CDT
Coming to Texas: 85mph Speed Limit?
Trucks pass by a sign indicating the highest speed limit in the country as they travel down Interstate 10 outside of the West Texas town of El Paso on Friday, July 21, 2006.   (Getty Images)

Good news, Texans: Soon you might not need to restrain yourselves to a mere 80mph. The Texas House has passed a bill that would raise the speed limit for certain stretches of highway from 80mph to 85mph, Fox News reports. If the bill passes the Senate and becomes law, it’ll once again give Texas the highest speed limit in the country—a designation it held until Utah tied its 80mph speed limit in 2009.

Of course, not everyone’s on-board with the change. “The two things that contribute most to traffic accidents are speed and alcohol,” said the president of the Southwest Insurance Information Institute. “The higher the speed limit, the more accidents there are.” But a Texas Department of Transportation representative says they’re not worried. “You’re looking at the 85th percentile of what people are actually traveling on that road,” she says. (More Texas stories.)

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