It’s an all-too-common sight these days. You don’t have to look too far and the chances are you’ll see distracted drivers in the cars around you.
What kind of behavior are your kids seeing when they are in the car with you? Research from SafeKids Worldwide (https://www.safekids.org/research-report/reducing-risks-teen-drivers) shows that parents who demonstrated good behaviors impacted the driving habits of their teen drivers.
When you’re expecting a baby, there’s no shortage of things to worry about. Buckling up behind the wheel shouldn’t be one of those worries.
Buckling up through all stages of pregnancy is the single most effective action you can take to protect yourself and your unborn child in a crash. Your shoulder belt should be away from your neck (but not off your shoulder) and across your chest. Be sure to remove any slack from your seat belt. Never place the belt under your arm or behind your back.
We get it. So many of us have been cooped up over the winter and now that we can get out, we want to get where we’re going quickly. Others on the road may not be in as big a hurry as you. That doesn’t mean you have to drive so aggressively that you put yourself and others at risk.
How do you know if you’re driving aggressively? Here are some of the dangerous driving behaviors.
Buckle up. Experience, research, and thousands of saved lives show that by simply clicking that belt, you’re significantly less likely to die in a serious crash than if you were unbuckled.
And if you don’t buckle up to save your own life, think about those in the vehicle with you. Unbuckled people act as projectiles in a crash, often causing serious injuries or killing others in the vehicle who are buckled.
Today marks the beginning of the 2021 National Work Zone Awareness Week. If you’ve driven anywhere in Iowa in the last few weeks, you’ve likely noticed highway work zones popping up all over. These work zones can be temporary, like the ones that are set up to patch potholes, or longer-term for things like replacing a bridge. But whatever the work zone might look like, there’s very little room for error on the part of passing motorists.
Nationally and in Iowa, rear-end crashes are the most common type of work zone incident. These types of crashes happen most often when a driver isn’t paying attention or is going too fast and doesn’t realize traffic ahead has slowed down.
Since the state of Colorado legalized the use of recreational marijuana in 2014, that state has continued to see an increase in cannabis-related traffic crashes and fatalities. In 2018, 13.5 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes in Colorado tested positive for cannabis. It’s important to remember that even if marijuana use is legal in a state, driving impaired is not. As Iowa’s neighboring states legalize recreational marijuana, we’re bracing for an uptick in impaired driving crashes and fatalities here, too.
