two reports of this :
By Leon Poultney, Feb 24, 2014
Danish road experiment sees accident rate fall on faster roads
Motorway stock
A two-year experiment by the Danish road authorities has revealed that the accident rate has fallen on both single carriageway rural roads and motorways, where the speed limit has been raised.
Danish authorities made the decision to raise the speed limit from 80 km/h (50mph) to 90 km/h (56mph) on two-way rural roads two years ago and increase certain sections of the motorway to 130 km/h (80mph) from 110 km/h (68mph) nine years ago.
Results have shown that accidents have decreased on single-carriageway roads due to a reduction in the speed differential between the slowest and fastest cars.
According to authorities, it has also resulted in less overtaking as the slowest drivers have increased their speeds, but the fastest 15 per cent drive one km/h slower on average, despite the higher limit.
The move was initially met with scepticism – much like proposals to increase the motorway speed limits in this country – as police feared motorists would drive even faster, but they have now reportedly changed their minds.
Erik Mather, a senior Danish traffic police officer said: "The police are perhaps a little biased on this issue, but we've had to completely change our view now that the experiment has gone on for two years."
Fatalities have also decreased on the sections of motorway where the speed limit was raised to 130 km/h (80mph).
Brian Gregory, the chairman of the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) – a group in favour of increased speed limits on UK motorways – said: "These findings vindicate what the ABD has been saying for years, that raising unreasonably low speed limits improves road safety by reducing speed differentials and driver frustration."
He added: "This means reinstating the 85th percentile principle - setting limits that 85 percent of drivers would not wish to exceed.
"Those who have argued that lower speed limits improve safety have been proved wrong."
and
Updated: 01/04/2014 15:30 | By motoringresearch.com
Higher speed limits result in fewer crashes
Danish accident rates went down after speed limits went up
Higher speed limits result in fewer crashes
Raising the speed limit can make roads safer, according to a study carried out in Denmark.
The Danish Road Directorate monitored how driver behaviour and accident rates changed when speed limits on country roads and motorways were increased.
[urlhttp://cars.uk.msn.com/news/60mph-m1-motorway-speed-limit-proposed]60mph M1 motorway speed limit proposed[/url]
Auto Express magazine reported that there was a drop in the number of accidents when the speed limit on single carriageway roads was increased from 50mph to 56mph. This has been put down to a smaller speed differential between the fastest and the slowest drivers, resulting in less overtaking.
When the speed limit was raised on rural roads, the slowest drivers increased their speeds, while the fastest were found to slow down by 1mph on average.
And it’s not just country roads that were affected – when motorway speed limits were raised from 68mph to 80mph, fatalities also fell.
A spokesman for the Alliance of British Drivers:
“The research would seem to suggest that we are going the wrong way in the UK. This has proven that deaths and accidents have fallen despite limits increasing.”
But would raising speed limits work in the UK? Not according to the Transport Research Laboratory, which suggests that although the number of crashes may go down, the severity would increase resulting in more serious casualties.
A Transport Research Laboratory spokesperson:
“A key element isn’t just the risk of the crash that is proportional to travelling speed for a given road, but the risk of injury should a collision occur.
“We would be interested to see how the Danish study has handled confounding factors. This would all influence the applicability of this scheme to other countries or road networks.”
and another interesting link here :
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2227326