There have been a lot of fatal traffic crashes in Iowa early this summer where the victim or victims were not wearing a seat belt. Scott Falb, with the Iowa DOT, says since the state’s seat belt law was enacted 21 years ago, investigators have been keeping track of "lives saved" by safety belt use.
Falb says 36 lives have been saved so far this year, and since the law took effect in 1986, 5,829 lives have been saved by use of a seat belt in Iowa. Falb says the bottom line is "seat belts save lives."
"So far this year, we’ve seen about 46 percent seat belt usage in our fatal crashes," Falb says, "we could save an awful lot of lives if we could get that usage up to 90 percent like we’re seeing in the public at large." The Iowa State Patrol says troopers will be looking for seat belt violators on Iowa interstates through the July 4th holiday.