Iowa Highway Deaths Down Overall, but Not in Work Zones

While the death toll on Iowa’s highways dropped sharply last year from a one-year-spike, the proportion of deaths that happened in work zones remained above 3 percent – a heightened level seen only three times in the last decade. This article reviews the highway and road construction zone fatalities in recent years and discusses the factors that have helped the downward traffic fatality trend, which include expanding Iowa’s Move Over or Slow Down law, strengthening the ban on texting while driving, education and enforcement, and improvement to the state’s roadways. It is suggested that the additional road projects could have led to the increase of work zone fatalities in 2016 and 2017.