ANKENY, Iowa – July 11, 2019 – Summer travel season is in full swing. With the increased traffic comes an increased emphasis on sharing the road with all types of vehicles and showing off those safe driving behaviors.

Starting July 14, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is promoting a nationwide law enforcement focus on safe speed as part of Operation Safe Driver Week. The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement officers, in coordination with the Iowa State Patrol, will be conducting several targeted enforcement projects around the state in a continued effort to reduce crashes and positively impact driver behavior, particularly in and around commercial vehicles such as semis.

As the number of miles traveled by both commercial and non-commercial vehicles increase, analysis of data has helped safety professionals pinpoint areas where more focus on safety is needed. To increase the effectiveness of Operation Safe Driver Week’s targeted enforcement, the locations were selected by analyzing data using the “Heavy Truck Crash Tool”  developed by Iowa State University Institute for Transportation.  This tool allows law enforcement and traffic safety staff to evaluate crashes involving trucks and identify trends and factors that contributed to these crashes.

Using this data, Motor Vehicle Enforcement and Iowa State Patrol officers will be teaming up to watch for both commercial vehicle drivers and how non-commercial vehicles behave around commercial vehicles.  They will focus on speed, distracted driving and seat belt usage. Unmarked vehicles and Iowa State Patrol aircraft may be utilized.

Dates and locations of the enforcement activities include:

Monday, July 15 – Winnebago, Hancock, and Sioux counties.
Tuesday, July 16 – Interstate 80/35 urban loop in Des Moines, Iowa 141 near Granger, Grimes area and Dallas County.
Tuesday, July 16 – Greenhill Road area / U.S. 218 in Waterloo.
Wednesday, July 17 – I-35 north and southbound Worth County.
Wednesday, July 17 – Mills and Fremont counties.
Thursday, July 18 – Johnson County/Iowa City area