DES MOINES, Iowa — 2023 has been a deadly year on Iowa's roads, bringing into question what the state can do to make travel safer and get drivers to slow down.
As of Tuesday, 366 people were killed on Iowa roads this year, according to the Iowa State Patrol. That's the highest number of traffic deaths since 2016 when 402 people died.
"The fatality rate continued to rise this year … it’s alarming to all of us," Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla said.
The Iowa State Patrol believes that mobile phone use is driving the increase.
"We have our suspicions, but one of those things is hands-free," Dinkla told Local 5. "We do feel that many people are looking at their devices, they're looking at those phones, and those phones are contributing to crashes.”
Over the Christmas weekend, two Iowans were killed in separate crashes: one in Madison County, the other on Des Moines’ south side.
But looking to the new year, state patrol and the Iowa Department of Public Safety hope changes will be made to decrease traffic deaths.
“We're gonna keep trying to drive our preventable crashes and fatalities down, but we need to do that through enforcement, through education and through legislation," Dinkla said.
The traffic fatality increase has sparked a push for hands-free legislation at the state level, which would establish fines for drivers using their phones. Though a similar bill never made it to the governor's desk in 2023, new legislation could come forward in the 2024 session.
Nearly 60% of those who died in car crashes this year weren’t wearing a seatbelt, according to Dinkla.
Every year, the Iowa State Patrol aims to keep the number of traffic deaths in Iowa under 300. That goal has not yet been met, per data from the Iowa DOT.