Report, Iowa lawmakers look toward making highways safer

CEDAR RAPIDS - Katherine Seaman watched as Nicky Stansell and Julie Popelka, both with the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, secured a child's safety seat in her car.

Seaman, 32, said installing a car seat sounded simple, but she and her husband wanted to be certain it was done properly, so they had Stansell and Popelka, both certified child passenger safety technicians, handle it.

'We just wanted to make sure we had the seat in safely, just to double-check,” Seaman said.

While Iowa law requires rear-facing safety seats for children younger than one year old and less than 20 pounds, Stansell, program manager with the department's Public Education Division and co-coordinator with SAFE Kids Linn County, recommends a rear-facing seat for a child's first two years.

Stansell's advice comes as a new report, by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, finds Iowa to be one of the nation's worst when it comes to vehicle safety laws and for failing to adopt optimal laws recommended by the organization.

That report, the 2017 Roadmap of State Highway Safety report, rates states based on the number of highway safety laws in effect, including rules on seat belts, motorcycle helmets and child safety seats. (Read the report at http://saferoads.org/roadmaps.)

Iowa was one of nine states receiving a red rating in the report, which is handed to states with fewer than seven of the organization's 15 recommended optimal highway safety laws. Iowa only has five of the recommended laws, according to the report.

For example, Iowa does not have a motorcycle helmet requirement, nor does it enforce seat-belt use in the back seat for any passengers older than 18 years.

However, the report states that 21 fatalities on Iowa highways in 2015 could have been avoided with rear seat-belt requirements. Another 12 lives might have been saved that year if Iowa required helmet use on motorcycles, the report states.

As for booster seats, Iowa law requires their use for children up to age six, but the report argues booster seats should be used until they reach 57 inches in height or eight years old.

The organization also recommends Iowa strengthens its texting and ignition interlock rules as well as the state's regulations on graduated learner's license holders including passenger and nighttime restrictions.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety consists of consumer, medical, public health and safety groups and insurance companies and agents. The group's mission is to promote laws and policies aimed at preventing motor vehicle crashes, according to the organization's website.

Cathy Chase, vice president of governmental affairs with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said a growing trend in nationwide highway fatalities shows the need for updated safety laws.

In 2015, there were 35,092 people killed in traffic crashes nationwide, a 7.2 percent increase from the previous year and the largest percentage increase in almost 50 years, according to the report.

In Iowa, the 403 highway traffic fatalities in 2016 marked about a 27 percent increase from the year before.

'That's a big jump,” Chase said.

Chase said her hope is to see the report used as a playbook by state lawmakers looking to update highway safety measures.

'What's surprising to us is that we know these laws save lives and we just need the political leadership to advance them,” Chase said. 'These are legislative battles that are worth fighting because they save lives. they save families from having an empty chair at the dinner table.”

At least one bill working toward the Iowa Senate Transportation Committee aims at one growing concern on Iowa's highways - distracted driving.

Texting while driving is considered a secondary offense in Iowa, it's an offense to text while driving, but police cannot pull over a driver for texting. Officers may cite drivers for texting only after stopping the driver for a separate offense, such as speeding.

A bill in the Iowa Senate would upgrade texting while driving to a primary offense.

'So if a police officer were to see someone texting and driving, or there's suspicion that they're texting, they could pull them over,” said Sen. Michael Breitbach, R-Strawberry Point.

On the House side, Rep. Gary Carlson, R-Muscatine and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said the committee saw a presentation on Thursday on distracted driving that included some emphasis on the use of hands-free units while driving.

One of the biggest challenges in addressing distracted driving is keeping up with technology, Carlson said.

'Certainly technology has changed dramatically,” he said. 'As technology has changed and as people use technology has changed, there are many good things that can come of that.

'But there are some things that are not so good.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com

Five of the laws recommended in the report:

l Primary enforcement of rear seat-belt use

l All-rider motorcycle helmet requirement

l Enforcing texting-while-driving as a primary offense

l Requiring booster-seat use for children up to eight years old and 57 inches

l Requiring ignition interlock for all offenders of driving under the influence.