The Iowa State Patrol set a goal last year of having fewer than 300 traffic fatalities for the first time since 1925.
Instead, the number of traffic fatalities grew for the third year in a row — from 337 in 2019 and 343 in 2020 to354 people in 2021.
Iowa State Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Alex Dinkla attributed the increaseto reckless driving trends, including excessive speeding, seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year the Iowa State Patrol issued 1,205 citations to drivers traveling more than 100 mph, 19.5% fewer than the 1,497 in 2020. But that 2021 figure was almost double the 629 tickets issued to drivers traveling more than 100 mph in 2019.
Just in December the State Patrol issued citations to drivers traveling 138 mph on Interstate 29 in Harrison County, 122 mph to a driver without a valid driver's license near Cedar Falls and 117 mph to a driver on Interstate 35 in Des Moines.
"Some of those speeds that we’re seeing are just out of this world," Dinkla said. "We’re seeing it on motorcycles and we’re seeing it in passenger vehicles."
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Excessive speed was a factor in 46% of fatal crashes in Des Moines, which has seen traffic deaths rise from 15 in 2019 to 23 in 2020 and 24 in 2021, and impairment was a factor in 29% of fatal crashes, according to the Des Moines Police Department. Over the last 3 years excessive speed was a factor in 42% of fatalcrashes in Des Moines and impairment was a factor in 31% of fatal crashes.
Two men were charged with vehicular homicideJan. 6 after a man they were street racing with wrecked his motorcycle on Iowa Highway 28 in Des Moines in October.
Michael David Crabb, 35, told detectives he was driving 160 mph on his motorcyclewhen another motorcyclist, Kyle Hogue, crashed and died.Brady Joe Clausi, 23,told a woman he was driving his motorcycle 187 mph when the crash happened, according to a criminal complaint.
"The significant contributing factors stay relatively consistent," said Des Moines police spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek. "What is most frustrating to our Traffic Unit investigators is that one of those factors, excessive speed, is intentional, and both are preventable by the driver."
On urbaninterstates and rural two-lane highways Polk County Sheriff'sdeputies are seeing similar trends, said Polk County Sheriff's Lt. Ryan Evans.
Drivers are making other reckless choices that can be deadly, Dinkla said.Iowa began requiring drivers to wear seatbelts in 1986, but 93motorists who died in 2021 were not wearing seatbelts, according to the Department of Transportation.
"Buckling that seatbelt can definitely save your life," Dinkla said. "We understand that there are medical exemptions for someone not wearing a seatbelt. But by and large it’s alarming when somebody doesn’t want to wear a seatbelt."
More:Des Moines residents charged with drag racing, vehicular homicide in October 2021 motorcycle crash
Distracted driving is also a large part of theproblem, according to Dinkla andEvans. Drivers have been caught using theirtheir phones, putting on makeup, reading books and watching movies while driving,Dinkla and Evans said.
"People haven't been willing to put down their cell phone," Evans said."People just don't take it seriously and think it's not going to happen to them."
Even drivers who use hands-free devices while driving are four times more likely to get into serious crashes, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
"That is so true," Evans said. "You're paying attention to your conversation, not to what your surroundings are."
Is it time to raise excessive speeding penaltiesin Iowa?
Under Iowa law drivers are fined $135 plus $5 per mile an hour they drive in excess of 20 mph over the speed limit.
For two years the State Patrol, county and local law enforcement agencieshave considered ways to curb excessive speeding and drive down road fatalities. Occasionally the State Patrol publicizes increased traffic enforcement, like on summer weekends or holidays. But so far increased enforcement has done little to combat excessive speeding.
"I am a little surprised. I would've thought with all the special projects and the announcements and everything we put out the motoring public would've understood that it's excessive and slow down," Evans said."But it really hasn't slowed down."
Law enforcement seems to be exhausting the resourcesavailableto them to stop the problem, said West Des Moines Police Sgt. Jason Heintz. In 2012 Iowa raised fines for passing school busses to $250 for the first offenseand$315 for the second offense.A third offense comes with a $315 fine,a 180-day driver's license suspension and up to a year in jail.
Something similar could be tried to curb excessive speeding, Heintz said.
"As much enforcement as everybody's been trying to do it just seems like the problem persists," Heintz said. "It's probably time to try to find something to do different. Extra enforcement and public education doesn't seem to be stopping the issue."
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A handful of legislative remedies have been proposed over the past two years with mixed results.A 2020 bill proposed doublingthe $5 mile-per-hour surcharge for drivers going20 mph or more over the speed limit, but the bill never advanced.
Last year the Iowa State Sherriff's' & Deputies' Association pushed for a bill to make killing or seriously injuring a person while speeding 25 mph over the speed limit a felony vehicular homicide charge.That bill passed and became a law.Speeding penalties are not on the group's legislative priorities for this year, saidRandy Rowland, president of the ISSDA.
"Having said that, we are also concerned about excessive speeds andcertainly would be supportive of a bill that would increase the fines for excessive speed if one was introduced," Rowland said in an email.
Last year the state created a traffic fatality reduction task force. Pat Hoye, chief of the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau and chair of the task force, said previously that the task force reviewed crash data from the last 10 years and found four waves each year where Iowa experiences increases in fatalities. That led to increased traffic enforcement during those times.
The task force will analyze the 2021 data and find leading causes of crashes, Dinkla said. Increased enforcement, increased education and legislation will be pushed by the task force.Again this year the task force set a goal of getting to fewer than 300 traffic fatalities, Dinkla said.
"If we see a lot of these crashes happening in certain areas you're probably going to see a lot more targeted enforcement being done in a lot of those problematic areas," Dinkla said. "There's a lot of key people that are decision makers in our state that will look at that data and find ways to reduce those crashes."
But the bottom line according to authoritiesis that people are driving recklessly.To drive home the point Evans shared a story about a driver he ticketed early this month. He was driving his squad car on Interstate 80 when a driver passed him. The driver told Evans he saw him, but still passed him, Evans said.
"I was already traveling at a high rate of speed and they passed a marked unit," Evans said."It tells you that people just aren't paying attention."
Philip Joens covers breaking news for The Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-443-3347at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.
