Health experts in the UK have said that increasing the speed limit on motorways to 80mph is harmful to health and would increase fatal crashes.

They also said that any economic benefits from the increased speed limit are outweighed by the increased risk of crashes. According to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine raise the speed limit on motorways from 70 to 80 mph would result in increased accidents while the doctors are describing the move as a populist.

They criticized the government’s proposal to increase the speed limit on all motorways in England and Wales to 80mph by the year 2013. The government says that deaths due to accidents in the UK have fallen by 75% in the past 55 years due to better safety measures. It said that it is proposing to increase the speed limit as “almost half of all drivers break the current limit anyway”. It also claimed that the UK has among the lowest rates of road deaths in the world.

The repot pointed out that after speed limits were raised in the US in 1995, the number of deaths caused by accidents increased 16.6%. It also challenged the evidence provided by the government as a pretext to increase speeds on motorways.

Researchers said, “It is difficult to see how any benefits of an 80mph speed limit would outweigh the costs. Past evidence shows that speed limit increases lead to substantial rises in road deaths, as well as other potential negative health and economic impacts.”