Des Moines, Iowa — Sergeant Alex Dinkla, the spokesman for the Iowa State Patrol, says there’s been a huge increase in traffic fatalities in Iowa this year.
Dinkla says an initial review appears to show an increase in fatal accidents involving vehicles that are drifting out of their lane.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 27 states have laws that make it illegal for motorists to handle a cell phone while driving.
State troopers say it’s difficult to enforce the Iowa law that bans texting while driving because it is still legal for someone to have a cell phone in their hand while driving. Last year the Iowa Senate overwhelmingly voted to require hands-free or voice-activated technology for making calls while driving in Iowa, but the bill stalled in the House.
Nearly 330 million people in the United States have a cell phone and a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures suggests at any given moment 800 thousand vehicles are being driven by someone using a hand-held phone.
