DES MOINES, Iowa — Whether it's going 25 over the speed limit or topping out at over 100 miles an hour, the Iowa State Patrol said egregious speeding is an issue that grew drastically over the pandemic.
Iowa State Patrol officials said the jump in this level of speeding started in 2020 when there were fewer cars on the road. Authorities hoped violations would die down when the pandemic did, but data obtained by Local 5 is proving otherwise.
According to Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla, people driving over 100 miles an hour was once a rare sight for law enforcement.
“They talk about getting speeds years ago 101 or 102 miles an hour ... you were calling your friend up, you were calling a coworker up and telling those folks that you just stopped somebody that fast," he said.
But now it's a regular occurrence in Iowa.
“Some of the speeds that we stop these people at are speeds that law enforcement is not even traveling to — a high risk or high fatality or dangerous call," Dinkla said.
In 2018, the state patrol issued 730 citations for people going speeds at or above 100 miles per hour. In 2019, they issued 659 citations. Flash forward just one year to 2020 and the number more than doubled to just shy of 1,500.
Since then, those numbers have stayed above 1,000 each year.
And it's a deadly habit. There were 327 deaths on Iowa roads last year — with 51% of them related to speeding. That same year, the Iowa Department of Transportation raised concerns over the number of traffic fatalities in the state.
“Every single year we have people who are killed. Family members, friends, loved ones, coworkers. The list goes on and on," Dinkla said.
In fact, over the last five years, there have been over 300 fatalities annually.
In came the safety corridor project.
This year, state and local officials are teaming up to patrol six sections of roadways across Iowa more heavily.
The corridors selected have been identified as having the highest amount of crashes. The hope is that this will cut down on crashes and in turn save lives.
“We wanted to get ahead of the curb. We wanted to try something new and get out there and be proactive," Dinkla said.
Here are the safety corridors identified:
- U.S. 20 from Lawton to Moville in Woodbury County
- U.S. 6 from East of Council Bluffs to US 59 in Pottawattamie County
- I-80 from County Road F-48 to Newton in Jasper County
- Iowa 5 from Iowa 92 to the Monroe County line in Marion County
- U.S. 218 from Mt. Pleasant to County Road J-20 (near Salem) in Henry County
- Iowa 2 from Donnellson to U.S. 61 in Lee County
With it being only a few months into the year, it's too soon to unpack the impact of this effort. However, Local 5 will be keeping an eye on those numbers.
While the safety corridor initiative is being led by law enforcement, Iowa State Patrol emphasized that safer driving is an effort we all can contribute to.
“When you look at most all of the crashes that we have, many of the fatality crashes that we have and if you go back and really analyze that data, you’re able to walk away from that saying that was a preventable crash," Dinkla said.
