(Radio Iowa) — All this week, law enforcement officers in Iowa and across the nation will put a special emphasis on cracking down on risky motorists through Operation Safe Driver Week. Dave Lorenzen, chief of Iowa Motor Vehicle Enforcement, says this time of year, people are often traveling unfamiliar roads. “Mix that in with the trucking population and the number of commercial vehicles that are moving up and down the roads on a daily basis, traffic counts are at an all-time high,” Lorenzen says. “So, it’s just an opportunity for us to concentrate on making sure that folks are following the laws, being attentive to all of the safety aspects of sharing the road with those larger vehicles.”

Lorenzen says patrols will be ticketing drivers who break common driving laws. “We don’t like to give citations but to affect driver behavior, sometimes there has to be that ultimate consequence,” Lorenzen says. “Most folks know when they’re speeding, they know they are not supposed to have their phone in their hands, they are not supposed to be doing things that are distracting them, and they know they are supposed to be belted in. Those three main things are no surprises to people. It’s just sometimes we become a little less attentive than we need to.”

We’re in the midst of what’s considered the “100 Deadliest Days” of the year, the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day when crash fatalities historically climb, especially for teen drivers.
(By Julie Englander, Iowa Public Radio)