St. Patrick’s Day is upon us. If you like to celebrate by having a drink or two, make sure you don’t rely on the luck of the Irish to get you home safely. Plan for a ride share or designate a sober driver, but if that doesn’t work out, here’s a program to check out – Two to Go - http://bit.ly/2Q9afD3
Are you missing that hour of sleep you lost over the weekend? Springing forward every year is a sign that warmer weather is on the way, but it can also mess with your sleep cycle and cause you to be drowsy behind the wheel. Unfortunately, drowsy driving can happen at any time of the year, not just during the switch to Daylight Savings Time.
How big is the problem of drowsy driving? Just think about yourself. How many times have you caught yourself nodding off behind the wheel? Drowsy driving crash data is very difficult to calculate, although The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that driving drowsy causes more than 100,000 crashes, 1,550 deaths, and 71,000 injuries every year.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Dr. Seuss
With today being designated National Read Across America, we’re giving a nod to Dr. Seuss who provided so many wonderful books that have endured over the decades.
Reading is one common trait of successful people. Of course, you shouldn’t have your nose in a book or eyes on your phone while you’re driving, but did you know the signs above the highway are positioned specifically so you can read them without taking your eyes off the road?
Where ever you go and whatever you do, remember that safety is up to you. As Dr. Seuss penned, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Will you be donning a mask to celebrate Fat Tuesday tomorrow? If you’re behind the wheel after a few drinks during a Mardi Gras celebration, a mask isn’t going to hide your identity from law enforcement. The actions of a drunk driver can be extremely obvious to almost everyone but the drunk driver.
The third Monday in February was set as “Presidents’ Day” by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971. We’re not sure when the switch happened, but now, this holiday seems to be less about celebrating our nation’s leaders and more about getting a good deal on furniture or electronics.
Not that we’re against good deals. One of the best deals you’re going to get doesn’t cost you any additional money and actually comes as standard equipment with every vehicle sold in America – the seat belt. In the U.S., seat belts have been mandatory equipment in passenger vehicles sine the 1968 model year. That’s 52+ years of saving lives simply by clicking a belt around your body.
It’s no big deal to go five or ten miles over the speed limit, is it? Highway traffic safety officials set speed limits for a number of reasons. First, when traffic is traveling at a steady speed, drivers have a better idea of what to expect from other drivers. If you’re behind the wheel and moving much faster or slower than traffic, you have the potential to confuse the drivers around you, creating a higher potential for someone to do something unpredictable and cause a crash.
Another element in setting appropriate speed limits is the design of the road. Obviously, residential streets and interstates are going to have different speed limits. To help maintain consistency from town to town, the Iowa legislature has set standard speed limits (known as statutory speed limits) for some types of roads. These can be found in Iowa Code 321.285.
