I have no idea why they bother: the speed limit on the North-South highway will be "raised to 120km/h as of July 2003":http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/southeastasia/view/41691/1/.html. The previous speed limit was 110km/h. All the bru-ha-hah for a "miserly 10km/h":http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,193846,00.html.
When the speed limit was 110pm/h, we had between 5-9 fatalities for every 10,000 vehicles ("1990-2000 stats":http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:lhZc-HOsch4J:www.kkr.gov.my/Bpj/Safety/quality.pdf+malaysian+death+road+statistics&hl=en&ie=UTF-8). That's pretty high i reckon: it means that every time you drive there is a 0.0005 - 0.0009% of dying on the road. Will a 10km/h increase lead to more deaths? This is a question lying on "Samy Vellu's conscience":http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/6/9/nation/mujuly&sec=nation.
The debate rages on: does "speed really kill":http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/05/national/main557123.shtml or are there "other reasons why drivers die on the road":http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/speedsci.html?
I wonder how many people die on the "Autobahn":http://www.german-way.com/german/autobahn.html, the famed German highway without speed limits.
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