Life in the fast lane might not be all it's talked up to be.

That's because drivers in Texas are reportedly running into wildlife on a newly opened section of the Lone Star State's Highway 130 — which has been widely touted as the fastest road in the nation with a posted speed limit of 85 mph. The 41-mile stretch of public-private toll road, which runs between Austin and San Antonio, opened to drivers on Wednesday.

The San Antonio Express-News reported that at least two hogs and a deer have been hit on the road since it opened. Officials say no drivers were injured in those incidents, according to the newspaper.

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The hogs are a normal sight in the area — Texas claims the largest feral hog population in the country, according to the Express-News.

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On Thursday, a driver had minor injuries after the first vehicle rollover happened on the road close to Interstate 10, according to the Express-News. An official with the Texas Department of Public Safety told the newspaper he does not believe speed was a factor.

This toll road extension was built and is being maintained by the State Highway 130 Concession Co., according to the Express-News.

"As on any highway, we have had sporadic reports of vehicles colliding with wildlife," a spokesman for the private company, Chris Lippincott, said in a statement Friday.

Lippincott also noted that State Highway 130 "is subject to the same laws and enforcement as any state highway." He said they could not provide comment on the accidents, as they are under investigation.

The new span of toll road is intended to alleviate congestion on parts of Interstate 35, which runs parallel.

Utah is the only other state in the country with posted speeds at 80 mph, with that as the limit on portions of Interstate 15, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

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The claim that "everything is bigger in Texas" will likely gain further credence later this year, when the speed limit on a stretch of toll road between Austin and San Antonio hits 85 miles per hour — the highest limit in the country.

Constructions crews on Wednesday began posting 85-mph speed limit signs along a pending section of toll road on Texas' State Highway 130. This 41-mile stretch of highway, which will open for traffic by Nov. 11, is on the east side of Austin and heads southwest toward San Antonio.

Chris Lippincott, an official with the State Highway 130 Concession Co., said that the Texas Department of Transportation has determined that this area is safe to travel at 85 mph.

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Related: Texas studies 85-mph speed limit, fastest in US

"We are committed to operating a safe, reliable highway for our customers," Lippincott said in a statement. "On any road, drivers hold the key to safety based on traffic, travel conditions and the capabilities of their own vehicles."

Since the repeal of the 55-mph national speed limit for U.S. highways in 1995, 34 states have individually raised their speed limits to 70 mph or higher on portions of their roads, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Other roads in the Lone Star State also have high speed limits: On some highways in rural West Texas, drivers can legally cruise as fast as 80 mph, The Associated Press reported. Utah is the only other state in the country with posted speeds at 80 mph, with that as the limit on portions of Interstate 15, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety believes higher speed limits have a costly trade-off.

"There’s a clear safety downside to raising safety limits," spokesperson Russ Rader told NBC News. "The research is absolutely clear that high speed limits lead to higher crash deaths."

Rader cited a 2009 study that found that in more than 10 years of follow-up after the 1995 federal speed limit repeal, an estimated 12,545 American deaths were attributed to increased speed limits.

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"If safety were a priorty, states would not be raising speed limits," Rader said. "They would be finding ways to heavily enforce speed limits they have."

The National Motorists Association, an advocacy organization originally rooted in fighting the 55-mph national limit, believes higher speeds are a "win-win" situation.

"Based on what we have heard about it, the Texas Department of Transportation did in fact do their required homework to make this happen," spokesperson John Bowman said.

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"The prevailing wisdom is setting the speed low," Bowman said, so there is a pressure to set low speed limits. However, he said they believe that legitimate studies often find that the speeds on roads should be raised.

"There’s a myth that when you increase speed limits, accidents and fatalities go up," Bowman claimed.

According to Bowman, higher speeds can actually increase highway safety by letting traffic flow at is own rate, reducing conflicts between vehicles, less stopping and starting, and fewer quick lane changes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A report released Tuesday by the Governors Highway Safety Association finds that no progress was made in reducing motorcyclist deaths in 2011, even as overall highway traffic deaths declined.

Based upon preliminary data for the first nine months of the year, from 50 states and the District of Columbia, GHSA projects that motorcycle fatalities remained at about 4,500 in 2011, the same level as 2010.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projected that overall motor vehicle fatalities declined 1.7 percent in 2011, reaching their lowest level since 1949.

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Motorcycle deaths remain one of the few areas in highway safety where progress is not being made.

"It is disappointing that we are not making progress in motorcycle safety," said GHSA Chairman Troy Costales in a statement, "particularly as fatalities involving other motorists continue to decline. As the study notes, the strengthening economy, high gas prices, and the lack of all-rider helmet laws leave me concerned about the final numbers for 2011 and 2012. Every motorcyclist deserves to arrive at their destination safely. These fatality figures represent real people – they’re family, friends and neighbors."

Comparing the first nine months of 2010 with 2011, motorcyclist fatalities decreased in 23 states, with notable declines in many.

On the other hand, 26 states and the District Columbia showed an increase in motorcyclist deaths.

The economy influences motorcycle travel in several ways. With the economy improving in 2011 and furthering strengthening in 2012, more people will have disposable income for purchasing and riding motorcycles. At the same time, rising gas prices may cause more people to choose motorcycles for transportation because of their fuel efficiency.

The Governors Highway Safety Association is a nonprofit association representing the highway safety offices of states, territories, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The full report is available here.

COVINGTON, Ga. -- A chain reaction crash Saturday involved six school buses full of children heading for a Six Flags amusement park outside Atlanta, officials said.

The 11 a.m. crash on Interstate 20 trapped the driver of one bus from Burke County Middle School in Waynesboro. After emergency crews cut her from the wreckage, Angela Anthony, 44, from Midville, Ga., was airlfited to an Atlanta-area hospital, Lt. Tyrone Oliver, Newton County Sheriff spokesman, told NBC station WXIA of Atlanta.

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Sixty-one students were treated at Newton County Medical Center for minor injuries, WXIA said.  All were expected to be sent home by the end of the day.

“At mile marker 98, just west of the Georgia Highway 11 exit, traffic began slowing for a lane closure about a half mile ahead,” Georgia State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “As the buses slowed, one bus struck the rear of another, setting off a chain-reaction crash. The passenger car was the last vehicle in the line and struck the rear of the sixth bus.”

A Burke County school official told The Associated Press that the children suffered nothing more than a few bruises and scrapes.

At one point, all westbound lanes and one eastbound lane were closed. They have since reopened.

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Connecticut motorists convicted of drunken driving are the latest to face mandatory use of ignition interlock devices, a step seen by some as steering the nation closer to requiring alcohol detection systems as standard equipment in all vehicles.

Pushed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Connecticut on Jan. 1 joined 14 other states with ignition-interlock mandates for drivers caught with blood-alcohol content above the legal limit, even for first-time offenders. A similar pilot program is under way in four California counties.

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At least 24 other states mandate Breathalyzer-like locks for so-called hard-core drunken drivers who include repeat offenders or those caught with alcohol levels of .15 or more.

Other states leave the penalty of interlock ignitions to the discretion of judges. Some states, such as Nebraska, reduce license revocation periods for convicted motorists who agree to use ignition interlocks.

States in general require convicted motorists to pay for the devices.

NBCConnecticut.com: First-time drunken drivers to get ignition locks

MADD launched its 50-state effort to eliminate drunken driving in 2006, when only one state, New Mexico, mandated ignition interlocks for even first-time drunken drivers, said Frank Harris, MADD’s manager of state legislative affairs.

Previously the focus was on hard-core drunken drivers and suspending their licenses, a punishment ignored by up to 75 percent of convicted motorists, he said.

"It makes me sick to my stomach to see people drive drunk with a BAC of .08 to .14 and not be categorized as hardcore drunk driving offenders," Harris said.

"DUI or DWI laws are very complicated," Harris said. "The ignition interlock is just part of the approach to assure the offender must prove sobriety and assure swift punishment," he said.

The devices are designed to prevent a car from starting if a driver who blows into it has an alcohol level above a certain point. Technological advances – including cameras on the device – make it tougher to get around the systems. People previously thought they could have sober friends blow into the devices to get their cars started.

Legal reforms with ignition-interlock mandates not only reinforce a state’s commitment to halting drunken driving, but also effectively reduce re-arrest rates by 67 percent, said Harris.

The recidivism figure is also cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mandating ignition interlocks is the CDC’s top recommendation for reducing the approximately 11,000 alcohol-related driving deaths yearly, which it says is about a third of all driving deaths.

But the American Beverage Institute fears mandates go too far and it wants judges to stay in the picture, said Sarah Longwell, the restaurant trade group’s managing director.

"There is a distinction between somebody who is one sip over the legal limit and the type of person who has 10 drinks," Longwell told msnbc.com. "The judicial system should be involved in those cases," she said.

"Restaurants prefer 10 people come in and have one drink each than one person order 10 drinks," she said.

A 120-pound woman who has two glasses of wine with dinner metabolizes alcohol differently than the 10-drink offender, she said.

A judge, not legal mandates, should decide about ignition interlocks at the lighter levels, she said.

The spread of mandates and discussion of ignition interlocks will "prime the public" for the day when the government requires auto manufacturers to install even more-sophisticated alcohol-detection devices as original equipment, Longwell said.

The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, funded in part by automakers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says it is working on "potential technologies that could detect alcohol from air samples in the vehicle passenger compartment, through the driver’s skin using tissue spectroscopy, from emissions through the skin, from eye movements, and from driving performance." (Wired takes detailed look at DADSS.)

"Why wouldn’t you want that?" Longwell asked.

The problem is in the details of where maximum alcohol levels are set. They won’t be at .08, she predicted, because if someone drinks five shots and hops behind the steering wheel, the driver's blood level won't cross the .08 threshold for a while. No one has the answer yet on how low to set cutoff sensors, she said.

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