With a major holiday coming up, extra law enforcement will be trying to keep the roads safe for motorists.

Iowa State Patrol District 4 Resource Officer Shelby McCreedy says starting today through Labor Day is the Crash Awareness and Reduction Effort (CARE) Initiative. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio additional state patrol, as well as local law enforcement will be watching for impaired motorists focusing on excessive speed, not wearing seat belts and other distractions such as drivers looking at their cell phones.

“It’s no longer a secondary violation. The electronic device usage law is now a primary violation. So yes that can be the only thing you are doing (is looking at your phone) but that gives us the grounds to stop you. So yes that is now a primary violation.”  

McCreedy notes just because the calendar flips over to September during the Labor Day holiday weekend, doesn’t mean this month is any less fatal when on the road.

“In fact in 2019, September was the deadliest month when it comes to fatal crashes. And then in 2020 and 2021 both it was the third deadliest month. So September has been very deadly for us historically.”   

McCreedy points out these holiday efforts continue their objective of lowering the overall fatality rate on the roads to under 300 deaths per year, and as of the end of August there was 216 fatalities, which was six more than at that time last year..