Traffic on Interstate 80 in eastern Iowa.
Low gas prices and the last holiday of the summer will combine to possibly make this weekend one of the busiest of the year on Iowa’s highways and interstates.
Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Nate Ludwig also points out that the University of Iowa’s first football game kicks-off tomorrow morning in Iowa City, while UNI plays at Iowa State tomorrow night.
“So, there’s going to be a lot of people on the interstates traveling,” Ludwig says. “We just ask that everybody takes their time getting to where they’re going, make sure you wear seatbelts, and at all cost avoid texting while driving or distracted driving.”
Last weekend, law officers in Iowa and 15 other states took part in a stepped-up enforcement effort along Interstates 80 and 35. Just over 5,900 motorists were issued speed citations, including more than 1,100 speeding tickets in Iowa.
Ludwig says over 1,100 seatbelt citations were issued, but only 41 were in Iowa. “That’s pretty indicative of our 93 to 94 percent seatbelt compliance rate in Iowa,” Ludwig says. There were 18 arrests for OWI and 9 for drug offenses in Iowa. The goal of last weekend’s enforcement effort was to reduce serious crashes. Authorities says there were zero fatal crashes over the three-day period along Interstates 80 and 35 in the 16 states.