Headed to work? Running behind to meet a friend? Whatever your reason to be on the road, while you’re driving IS NOT the time to be sending a text.
The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use leads to 1.6 million crashes every year. They also say texting while driving is six times more likely to cause a crash than driving drunk.
Information provided by the Bureau of Budget and Business Systems
In the last three decades, impaired driving the United States has decreased by 30 percent according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
That sounds like great news until you learn that Iowa data shows that each year nearly 34 percent of fatal crashes in our state involve an impaired driver - and the data may not show the whole picture. In Iowa, if a driver dies alone in a vehicle crash and there is no other damage or injury, that driver isn’t tested for impairment. It’s likely that at least some of those crashes can be attributed to a driver who is impaired.
Most of the time when you’re behind the wheel, you know exactly where you want to go. Unfortunately, the drivers around you can’t read your mind. Turn signals were invented to improve safety by alerting other drivers of your intentions.
These days, all vehicles are equipped with blinking turn signals to indicate where you want to go. In recent models, those turn signals may also connect to safety systems to alert you of vehicles or obstacles in the lane you are signaling to merge into.
Information provided by the Bureau of Budget and Business Systems
It’s a very busy time of year for many Iowa families. School events, preparing for harvest, and any number of other late summer/early fall activities can make you feel rushed to get where you’re going.
Rushing around and feeling stressed can lead to aggressive driving. A recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that nearly 80 percent of drivers expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the previous year. Previous research by the AAA Foundation found that from 2003 to 2007, over half of fatal crashes involved at least one driver who performed a potentially aggressive action.
Life is full of choices. Some are minor, others can change your life. One seemingly minor decision that could have life-altering impacts is the choice to drive after you’ve been drinking. Almost 34 percent of Iowa’s traffic fatality crashes in 2018 involved an impaired driver. That’s 108 people who died because of someone’s bad choice.
Last Labor Day weekend, five people died on Iowa roadways. Three of those deaths were caused by an impaired driver. If you are closing out the summer with a few drinks, make the right choice and arrange for a designated driver or call a rideshare service to get you home safely.
