With a holiday coming up this weekend, the Iowa State Patrol is participating in a special traffic safety initiative.

District 4 Resource Officer Shelby McCreedy tells Raccoon Valley Radio the Mother’s Day holiday weekend has been designated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association as one of the times of the year with increased traffic on the roadways. McCreedy points out Iowa is joining with Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas for a multi-state safety initiative that is primarily focused on speed and moving over for vehicles on the side of the road. 

McCreedy explains that Iowa’s “Move Over” law is when a motorist encounters any vehicle with flashing lights on the side of the road, they must either move over safely or slow down. She explains how much a motorist should reduce their speed when they are slowing down.

“Merely feathering your brakes or tapping your brakes does not satisfy the requirement of the law. When we talk about slowing down, we’re talking about a significant reduction in speed, which we equate to about 20 miles per hour.”

McCreedy talks about the overall goals for this weekend.

“The hope is the efforts will be effective in reducing serious injury, fatal crashes on the roadways (and) not just for this upcoming Mother’s Day weekend, but on a more permanent basis.”

The special traffic enforcement program is May 6th-8th.