I clicked the link for the data, but came up with some crash test review...

I'd like to see a timeline of that data, the speed data collection by year, as well as the level of service data where these figures were collected. I'll bet that there was a gradual increase & the most accidents occured as the roadway level of service increased.
Just one of those journalism problems that we have in this country. Some numb head decides to leave critical bits of information out of a report in an effort to skew the interpretation of the data.