Perkins, Iowa — If your commute involves Highway 18 and/or Highway 75, you may want to be extra cautious of your driving.
Iowa State Patrol Trooper Kevin Krull says that is the case all the time, as those highways have a higher incidence of crashes — but especially this week, because law enforcement officers are going to focus on those highways in our area this week.
Krull says when they had their last high-intensity project in that area in April, the speeds were way too high, lots of people were following too closely, seat belts were not always worn, and there was a lot of distracted driving, especially texting and driving.
Not that there is ever an acceptable level of fatal crashes, but Krull says that number is calculated every year, and it is still way too high.
The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau does a daily count of traffic fatalities, and so far this year, there have been 189 traffic fatalities through the end of July. That is just a little better than last year, when there had been 211 traffic fatalities through July. The average number through July is just over 183 traffic fatalities in the years of 2016 through this year, so we’re pretty close to average, but as Krull says, that average is too high — and that’s why they started the “Side With Us” campaign to begin with.
As a whole, the campaign does seem to be working, as there were 402 traffic fatalities in Iowa in 2016, and while there were some ups and downs, every year since has had fewer than 400 traffic fatalities.
