The Muslim Community Center in Sioux Falls is expanding, Muslims are praying at the Sioux Falls airport, and ISIS has included an Ellsworth AFB soldier on its “Kill List”; ergo, we’re all gonna die! Aaaaaaaahh!!!
Gordon, you know I share your distaste for anyone who perverts religion into hatred and violence. But South Dakotans are more likely to get killed by the new 80 mile-per-hour speed limit that Rep. Brian Gosch tucked into the highway tax-and-fix bill.
Oh yeah, about that brilliant idea—
[Transportation Commissioner Edward] Seljeskog asked who pushed for it.
“I don’t understand the thinking behind it,” added Commissioner Ralph Marquardt of Yankton.
Rep. Brian Gosch, R-Rapid City, was “the prime proponent of this,” [Transportation Secretary Darin] Bergquist said.
As for the reason, driving faster will reduce gas mileage and produce more revenue, Bergquist said [Bob Mercer, “Change to 80 mph Not Welcomed by All,” Aberdeen American News, 2015.03.27].
People will overdrive the on-ramps to merge into Rep. Gosch’s accelerated traffic flow, but thank Allah God Mammon that we’ll use more fossil fuels and collect more taxes! Amen, brother, and pass the sutures:
Seljeskog, a medical doctor, said he’s tired of treating patients in the emergency room.
He said many drivers are going as fast as 90 mph already west of Rapid City. He wondered what they would do with the limit at 80 mph.
“I just can’t buy this,” Seljeskog said [Mercer, 2015.03.27].
An 80 mile-per-hour speed limit means more people in Dr. Seljeskog’s emergency room, but it may also mean fewer people in our rest rooms along the Interstate. 80 mph means travelers can get across South Dakota faster, meaning some percentage of them who would’ve needed a potty break/stretch break/snack break at Whitewood or Hartford or Elk Point or Sisseton will now be able to hold it until they out of South Dakota.
It also means all those crazy ISIS dudes and other perilous perps will flow through South Dakota, since they can use our free-wheeling roads to get to their targets faster. Holy cow—Gordon’s right! We’re all gonna die… because of Brian Gosch! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
In the spirit of your blog, we might get the SDHP to lay down some of those nice strips that blow tires. They could do it near small towns so the citizens of the towns would benefit — sell a few tires, open a bed and breakfast if necessary, or at least a lunch counter or a putting green while repairs are made…..
The notorious notary abuser Gosch by gosh is gouache on this bill. We should be doing what we can to keep the oil in the ground rather than killing people with speed. Speed kills baby, that is for sure.
Everyone driving 80+ plus miles per hour better have good medical insurance and money supply because those without medical insurance will not be able to get Medicaid and will be SOL, if get into a vehicle crash.
On the other hand, vehicle crashes can support the medical system, tow truck drivers, auto body repair shops, and etc which would help bring in more revenue for the state.
South Dakota Muslims are more likely to be physically attacked by Gordon Howie and other hate and fear mongers than ISIS ever attacking Gordon Howie.
If you don’t want to get into a car accident, The answer is simple. Don’t drive.
Take the train or ride a horse.
Ah, yes, our Legislature buys into the broken-window fallacy. Paging Dr. Bastiat…
Cory writes:
>”Paging Dr. Bastiat…”
And links to:
http://mises.org/library/broken-window-fallacy
I wish wacko-bird libertarians like Cory Heidelberger would stop trying to hijack every political discussion on the entire internet with their fringe ideas about “Austrian economics” (ha ha).
Remember that it was the notorious Mr Gosch who did his best last year to torpedo the texting-while-driving legislation. And he ‘represents’ my district (trust me, I’ve never voted for him.)
Hey ISIS: red flag warning today for most of the proposed Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge.
Obamacare was supposed to ease the backlog of emergency room visits. If driving faster causes more visits to ERs,then blame Obamacare-the nutjob way. Get rid of Obamacare and when driving faster causes more ER visits,then blame Benghazi,then blame Hillary,then blame the liberal media then finally say you never said driving faster causes more accidents and if that doesn’t work claim your comment was taken out of context. No way a wingnut can lose.
Gordo is actually a closeted ISIS member. A jihadi Gordy standing in the wings wrapped around a flag. What is the difference between Gordon and ISIS in their rhetorical strategies on their positions? Much the same, with the same kinds of end results, religious theocracy. Sharia Law is the kind of law that Gordon and his crew actually love deeply. They offend women and condemn them into a life of slavery to their male counterparts. What would Gordon not love about that? Yep, they go together like peas and carrots.
Seljeskog’s a neurosurgeon, small point unless he’s cutting your brain, Cory.
Speaking of brains or lack thereof, did Berquist really make that statement?
I’ve been driving 79 for years. You don’t seem to get a ticket at that speed. Now I’ll go a little faster. Thanks Rep. Gosch!
There are a lot of problems with assuming an increase of 5mph will somehow equate to more deaths.
The reality is, when a fatality does occur, the Highway Patrol needs to cite the root cause. So if a person was drinking or feel asleep at the wheel (difficult to determine) or if there was some ice on that stretch of road then that is their focus. However if they can’t find any road conditions or drugs or alcohol etc. to blame… guess what they write on their report?
You guessed it… they claim speed was a factor. Even when they have no idea how fast the car was actually traveling because contrary to what CSI has taught us, unless there is a reason to suspect a crime, they don’t bother to reconstruct the scene of an accident or pull “black box” data if available. 99% of the time they just make a judgment call based upon what they think was occurring – and last I knew we didn’t have many Highway Patrol Officers who were trained to determine speed based upon a visual inspection of a skid mark.
The truth is, if you neutralize variables you find that the one indicator of a fatality that rises above everything else is whether the occupant of the vehicle was or was not wearing a safety belt. So in reality a 5 or 10mph difference in speed likely wouldn’t matter, because when someone is thrown from the vehicle at 60mph, it can be just as deadly as someone thrown from the vehicle at 80mph. The chances of surviving an accident of that nature isn’t great.
Remember, after the federal speed limit was repealed in 1995, we saw more than 30 states raise their speed limits, and the fatality rate dropped to a record low level by 1997 including in the states that raised their speed limits. This means for every million miles driven, there were fewer people being killed at the “unsafe” higher speeds than there were before the law was changed.
Now some attribute the drop to increased safety equipment in vehicles such as more airbags or better crumple zones but there were actually fewer crashes with the higher speeds – which may be due to people traveling further between stops which means fewer cases of them entering or exiting the roadway (where the vast majority of accidents actually occur).
Granted you can find studies and data to support almost any viewpoint, and there are cases where speed limits should not be raised – but this should be based upon the specific road, and not a universal, arbitrary limit. Obviously there becomes a point at which we have gone too far and the average driver isn’t able to adapt to the higher speed. Is that 80mph? I can’t say… but perhaps in two or three years we can look back at the data and make that determination.
Until then, the gloomy predictions of increased fatalities just serves to show us what some people hope will happen so they can stand back and say “I told you so”.