It’s time to make our highways safer

     One of my major priorities during my legislative career has been promoting public safety. In 1997, I was pleased to floor manage Iowa’s tough drunk driving law. In the years that followed, we began to see a reduction in Iowa highway deaths. However, due in large part to distracted driving as well as a recent uptick in drunk driving fatalities, highway deaths are increasing at an alarming rate. Four hundred and three people lost their lives on Iowa highways in 2016, a significant increase over the preceding year. This figure is unacceptable and the legislature needs to take steps to make our highways safer.

     I strongly support tougher anti-texting legislation, consideration of innovative initiatives to deter drunk driving, and possible limitations on the use of hand held devices as alternatives such as Bluetooth technology become increasingly available.

     According to the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association, texting while driving is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. Approximately 70 percent of fatal accidents involve vehicles swerving out of their lane, which often indicates distracted driving. One proposal that I support is to make texting while driving a primary offense that could itself trigger a traffic stop. I would anticipate that there would be a marked reduction in this dangerous activity once Iowans know that laws prohibiting texting while driving would be strictly enforced.

     I am optimistic that 2017 will see significant progress in the effort to make Iowa highways safer. The only organized group opposing the texting proposal is the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues that the anti-texting legislation is discriminatory against African Americans and would result in an increase in racial profiling. I would hope that safety concerns for all Iowans, including African Americans, would outweigh the ACLU’s concern.

     I think it is also time to revisit our drunk driving legislation, as the last major update was almost 20 years ago. Some states have enacted innovative legislation that seems to be reducing both first time and subsequent drunk driving offenses. States with mandatory interlock laws that require every person convicted of an OWI to drive with an interlock device have experienced a decrease in drunk driving fatalities. (In Iowa, interlock devices are mandated for some drunk drivers, but not all.) In addition to discouraging second offenses, an extensive John Hopkins University study shows that the prospect of an interlock requirement also has a deterrent effect on people with no previous OWI convictions. This is just one of a number of interesting ideas that could lead to fewer needless deaths on Iowa highways and possibly prevent some young people from ever having to experience the tragedy of a drunk driving conviction.