(Denison) The Iowa State Patrol is joining Iowa’s statewide Traffic Fatality Reduction Task Force to reduce deaths on Iowa’s roadways. The initiative is toward reducing speeding drivers today.
According to the past ten years of crash data, Iowa State Patrol Trooper and District #4 information Officer Shelby McCreedy says this time period is one of the most deadly in the state.
Recent data released from the Iowa State Patrol, tracking speeding violations from January 1 through December 31, 2020, shows a 74-percent increase in drivers exceeding the speed limit 25-miles per hour or more. Trooper MCreedy says since the start of the pandemic, Iowa has seen a significant increase in drivers greatly exceeding the speed limit, putting everyone on the road in danger.
Trooper McCreedy says even more alarming are patterns in the data identifying that a total of 1,497 drivers were cited for speeds that exceeded 100 miles per hour. Violations for these flagrant speeds increased 108 percent compared to the four-year average.
Troopers routinely clocked speeds as high as 121 to 155 miles per hour on roads throughout Iowa. The eventual goal for fatalities in Iowa is zero, but the incremental goal for 2021 is under 300, down from 338 in 2020. If achieved, this will be the first time Iowa traffic fatalities have been under 300 lives since 1925.
