The Iowa State Patrol is seeking to reduce the number of crash fatalities this year with a new enforcement project that will include Guthrie County this weekend.

According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, there have been over 300 traffic deaths in each of the last five years, with the highest being 402 in 2016. Iowa State Patrol is seeking to decrease the number to less than 300 fatalities at the end of the year by encouraging drivers to “SIDE” with them in making roads safer.

District 4 Trooper Shelby McCreedy tells Raccoon Valley Radio SIDE stands for Seatbelts, Impairment, Distractions, and Excessive Speed, “Seatbelts are a huge factor in eliminating and reducing serious injury and fatal crashes, because five percent of Iowa drivers and passengers who go unbuckled account for nearly 40 percent of the fatalities that happen across the state. The impaired drivers, crashes involving drugs or alcohol-impaired drivers, is on the rise so that is one of our focuses for 2020. With distracted driving everybody sees the distracted drivers on the roadways and lane departures or leaving the roadway are contributing factors in half of the serious-injury crashes across our state. And with excessive speed in 2019 the majority, and that was a large majority, of fatal and serious-injury crashes involved speed as a contributing factor.”

The Iowa State Patrol is planning to hold increased enforcement projects throughout the year besides typical holiday and increased-traffic situations, which includes Highways 25, 30, 141, and 44. McCreedy emphasizes that Highway 141 in Guthrie and Carroll counties will be the focus this weekend.