It seems the Iowa Legislature is really committed to killing people.

Not only is the Legislature trying to bring the death penalty back to Iowa, but a plan to raise the speed limit on interstate highways to 70 miles per hour is now being considered.

Lawmakers are behind this bill because, according to Rep. Michael Cormack in the Feb. 27 Des Moines Register, “It’s something the public wants.”

Sure, we would all like to drive faster. The problem is that the public, generally speaking, is stupid. We choose to ignore the fact that higher speeds will mean more traffic fatalities because we are arrogant enough to assume it won’t happen to us.

Sometimes the government needs to do what is unpopular in order to protect us from ourselves. Traffic on our interstate highways is flowing just fine, thank you, and there is no need for an increase in the speed limit.

Back in June, the Omaha World-Herald ran a story about the effects of raised speed limits six months after they had been enacted in Nebraska. The story was written by a brilliant, up-and-coming writer named, let’s see … Oh! It was me.

Yes, I personally spoke to members of Nebraska’s law enforcement community and discovered there were more traffic fatalities in Nebraska in the first six months of 1996 than there were in the first six months of 1995.

There were not significantly more accidents, but the accidents were worse because the vehicles were going faster. Increased speed results in a more forceful impact. It’s simple physics. (Not so simple that I could explain it to you. Find an engineering friend.)

Of course, officials were reluctant to cite increased speeds as the reason for the increase in fatalities, but it doesn’t take a genius to make the connection.

A graphic that accompanied the Register story showed that four Midwestern states, including Iowa, that did not raise their interstate speed limits over 65 miles per hour saw a decrease in fatalities last year, while four states that raised their limit to 70 miles per hour or more saw their fatality rates increase. Still feel the need to go five miles per hour faster?

I had the opportunity to experience the increased Nebraska speed limit for myself. In November, I went to visit some friends in Lincoln. On the stretch of highway between Omaha and Lincoln, the speed limit was 75 miles per hour.

Since the speed limit was 75, most cars on the road were doing 85, and that was in the slow lane.

The speedometer in my little Escort only goes to 85, and I had to keep the needle buried just to keep from being run over. My car was shaking like the Enterprise trying to make Warp 6. (Damn it, Scotty, I need more power!)

Doesn’t 75 seem a little excessive? In parts of Montana, there is no speed limit. I guess the logic there is that in Montana, any other vehicle you see on the road is likely to be a tank driven by some militia member, and tanks rarely hit high rates of speed. Of course, if you collide head-on with a tank, you’re likely to come out on the losing end—unless you happen to be driving my roommate’s Cadillac, which is roughly the size of an aircraft carrier. But I digress.

Even though many of our legislators are willing to cave to the uninformed public opinion, there are some who are trying to the unpopular, or “right” thing.

One such legislator is Rep. Dick Weidman, a Republican from Griswold. Weidman, a retired state trooper, was the only member of the House Transportation Committee to vote against the increased speed limit.

“I’ve seen the accidents out there, and I know what speed does,” Weidman said.

Let’s been honest with ourselves. The speed limit in Iowa is currently 65 miles per hour. Do you stay under that speed limit all the time?

Unless you happen to be my grandfather, probably not. People often drive at least 5 miles per hour over the limit. If the limit is raised, people will drive 5 miles per hour over that.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you are sitting wherever you are reading this and thinking to yourself, “Yes, by God, I NEED to drive faster on the interstate.” So the Legislature raises the limit to 70 miles per hour.

Let’s make a very conservative estimate that next year one person will be killed in a car accident he or she would otherwise have survived had the speeds of the vehicles involved been a little slower.

Now imagine that the one person is someone you love. Still feel the need to drive a little faster?

No one is having trouble getting where they need to go. Five miles per hour is not worth even one life. The Legislature should leave the speed limit where it is.

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Steven Martens is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids.