With the holiday season now in full swing, there has been a traffic initiative that has been and continues to be ongoing with law enforcement.

The Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau has been conducting a special Traffic Enforcement Program (sTEP) Wave since November 14th to emphasize a greater importance of traveling safely on the roads when driving. This means to not drive impaired or distracted. According to the GTSB last year, there were seven traffic fatalities on Iowa’s roads over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which was the highest number of fatalities since 2010.

The current sTEP Wave will continue until November 27th. There is an additional enforcement program called the Crash Awareness and Reduction Effort (CARE) from now through the 27th that the Iowa State Patrol is also participating in.

According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, as of this past Tuesday, there have been 330 traffic-related fatalities on the road this year, which is already more than last year when there were 302 fatalities.