Making Iowa roads safer

Iowa State Patrol works to reduce number of fatalities

Statewide, there were 376 fatalities on Iowa roads in 2023. That's the highest that count has been since 2016 and the Iowa State Patrol is focused on lowering that number drastically in 2024.

Of those fatalities, many involved high speeds and no seatbelts, said Trooper Paul Gardner, of District 7 in Fort Dodge. Because of that, speed and seatbelt enforcement is a high priority for the Iowa State Patrol, he said.

"In just District 7 alone, we wrote over 6,000 citations for speeding in 2023," Lt. Aaron Smidt said.

Of those citations, he added, 582 were for speeds over 90 miles per hour, 105 were for over 100 miles per hour and the top speed was 140 miles per hour.

District 7 troopers conducted 11,813 traffic stops in 2023.

"That's quite a few traffic stops for a pretty rural district such as ours," Smidt said.

Throughout 2023, the ISP had its High Five Rural Traffic Safety Project, which is an initiative of the State Patrol and the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau. The project identifies the five counties in the state with the worst records of traffic accidents, traffic fatalities and seatbelt usage. In late 2022, Humboldt was identified for that, along with Appanoose, Keokuk, Mitchell and Fremont counties.

"Humboldt went from four fatalities in 2022 to last year, when we only had one fatality," Gardner said. "And our serious injury crashes were reduced drastically as well because we put a lot of focus on enforcement and education there."

In District 7, troopers wrote 836 seatbelt citations in 2023.

Nearly 70 percent of traffic fatalities in Iowa occur on rural roads, according to data from the Iowa Department of Transportation.

"We are looking at really focusing some of our enforcement into some of those areas that we see some of those fatalities in the rural parts of our district," Gardner said. "We try to think outside the box. We're going to be hitting some areas in our seven-county district that may not always see a lot of enforcement just because it's rural areas, but we're going to do our best to get into those areas this year and hopefully that makes a difference in some of our serious injury and fatality collisions."

Last year, the State Patrol also worked with the DOT to pinpoint some dangerous intersections in District 7 and make them safer.

"One of the most dangerous intersections in our district is Highway 175 and P29 in the southwest part of Webster County near Farnhamville," Gardner said. "We just have a lot of intersection related crashes there."

More lights and signs were added to that intersection to try to increase safety, he said.

In 2023, the District 7 also grew slightly after absorbing the DOT's Motor Vehicle Enforcement unit as part of Gov. Kim Reynolds' government realignment bill.

"They are considered troopers," Smidt said. "We have four MVE officers that are under the Commercial Motor Vehicle Unit and one lieutenant. … I think it's been a good transition."