(Area) The Iowa State Patrol is joining Iowa’s statewide Traffic Fatality Task Force to reduce Iowa roadways’ deaths. As part of that effort, State Troopers will be conducting a special traffic enforcement initiative.
Iowa State Patrol Trooper and District 4 Public Information Officer Shelby McCreedy says the Iowa State Patrol has target initiatives throughout the year that are holiday-related or high-traffic periods of time or have been historically deadly in the past. The statewide project date for March coincides with St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.
Trooper McCreedy says in Iowa; March 17 is typically one of the biggest drinking nights of the year and, unfortunately, one of the deadliest on our roadways.
In 2019 in Iowa, there were two crashes over the holiday which killed four people. In 2018, 73 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday period, and 33 percent of the pedestrians age 16 and older killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit.
The eventual goal for fatalities in Iowa is ZERO, but the goal for 2021 is under 300, down from 338 in 2020. If achieved, this will be the first time Iowa traffic fatalities were under 300 lives since 1925.
