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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a lawsuit challenging a new state law that changed the way some judges are selected in Iowa.

A state court judge last month dismissed the lawsuit filed in May by a group of lawyers and Democratic lawmakers against Gov. Kim Reynolds, saying they didn’t have legal standing to challenge the law.

The new law gave the governor an additional appointment to the 17-member state judicial nominating commission, meaning the governor will appoint the majority of members.

The lawsuit alleged the vote of the commission’s lawyer members was diluted and that the law is an unconstitutional overreach by the legislative branch into the judicial branch.

The commission nominates justices for the Iowa Supreme Court and the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Supreme Court Justice Bruce Zager signed an order Tuesday denying a request to halt enforcement of the new law until the case could be considered on appeal. However, Zager says the court will hear the appeal.

The Creston Police Department reports two arrests on Wednesday.

At 1:02pm Officers arrested 54-year-old Daniel Snedeker of Diagonal for Driving While Suspended. The arrest occurred at the intersection of Maple and Montgomery Streets in Creston. He was later released from the Union County Jail on $300 bond.

At 3:05pm Creston Police arrested 40-year-old Dustin James Seley of Creston at 404 Oak Street on the charge of Trespass. He was cited and released on a Promise to Appear.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a man who says his rights were violated by police while he was taking video of cars parked illegally at the Des Moines police station.

Daniel Robbins said in his September lawsuit that three officers violated his constitutional right to be free from retaliation and false arrest. Robbins said the officers accused him of suspicious behavior, patted him down and took his cellphone and camera to search them. He was not charged and was eventually let go.

The Des Moines Register reports that U.S. District Judge Charles Wolle said in his ruling that Robbins’ actions taking video of cars outside the station “created reasonable suspicion among the officers that he was engaging in criminal activity,” adding that Robbins was given “ample opportunity to allay the officers’ suspicion.”

Wolle says that because Robbins’ rights were not violated, the police under the law are immune from such a lawsuit.