Statewide Iowa (RI) — The number of traffic fatalities has dropped significantly in Iowa this year and could reach a 100-year low.
Some law enforcement officials cite Iowa’s new law banning the handling of a smart phone while driving as a major factor.
Larry Grant, the state safety planner for the Iowa Department of Transportation, says officers have been issuing citations for the past six months and will start issuing citations January 1st, so he expects the full effect of the law on traffic safety will occur in 2026.
A high percentage of traffic fatalities involve a single vehicle that runs off the road.
As a result, Grant says the Iowa DOT’s new policy is that every road the agency builds in the future will have edge line rumble strips and, if it’s a two-lane road, there will be rumble strips along the center line.
The DOT is also widening all paint strips that mark lanes on the road from four inches to six inches.
Grant says there have been amazing improvements to vehicles that are contributing to the drop in fatalities as well as accidents.
Other roadway improvements are improving safety and reducing wrecks, such as high-intensity reflective signs, particularly on the curves of roads.
He says it makes the driver look up a little bit, and often, when people are driving, they’re not focused on the road; they’re looking down. He says they want to draw their attention to those safety signs that are out there, whether it’s stop signs or yield signs or, again, those chevrons around a curve. Whether it’s in the daylight or at night when those headlights hit, it draws attention to those signs, says Grant.
Grant was a state trooper for nearly 30 years and has been the Iowa DOT’s State Safety Planner for the past three-and-a-half years.
KIWA Staff Photo
