Iowa sees lowest annual traffic death toll in 100 years

Iowa’s traffic fatality count for 2025 was the lowest in 100 years, a milestone state officials are saying is thanks, in part, to a new hands-free driving bill that was passed by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds last year.

As of Dec. 31, the state had recorded 260 deaths on Iowa roads in 2025, a significant drop from the 357 deaths recorded in 2024, and the five-year average from 2020 through 2024, which was 354.2. The last time Iowa recorded fewer than 300 traffic deaths in one year was in 1925, when there were 261 fatalities. The highest yearly fatality count in Iowa was in 1970, when 912 people died on the state’s roads.

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Hands-free driving law

Sgt. Alex Dinkla, the public information officer for the Iowa State Patrol, said there could be multiple factors contributing to the drastic decrease in traffic deaths last year, but state officials believe the biggest impact was the hands-free driving law, which states that drivers cannot use phones or other devices while driving unless they are in hands-free mode.

The law went into effect July 1.

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“The reason that we believe that we can pinpoint that as one of the leading factors is when we looked at the drop in fatalities between January and June, there was a slight reduction, but the biggest reduction in fatalities came from July through December,” Dinkla said. “There has been a huge reduction in fatalities the last five and a half, six months of the year. So, we know that there’s a direct correlation between that hands-free law being enacted and safer roads.”

In Iowa in 2024, the months of January through June saw 138 traffic fatalities. That same six-month period in 2025 saw 121 deaths on Iowa roads. The second half of the year — July through December — in 2024 resulted in 219 traffic deaths, while in 2025, the state recorded just 121 deaths.

Iowa has had a law that barred drivers from writing, sending or viewing electronic messages while driving, but it was difficult to enforce, since phones can be used for so many other purposes and it’s hard to prove what a driver was doing with their device.

The new law expands that prohibition to “holding, viewing or manipulating an electronic device” behind the wheel. From July 1 though Dec. 31, law enforcement officers have been able to give out warnings for violations of the law.

Officers with the Iowa State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies around the state have been educating drivers about the law change through outreach efforts and by handing out informational flyers when issuing warnings, something that Dinkla said they will continue.

“Oftentimes that what we’re finding is, when we stop people, we pull them over, they’re unaware that Iowa does have a hands-free law,” Dinkla said. “If we can educate the public, put the devices down, put those phones down, go back to driving the car, we know that we’re going to continue seeing a reduction of fatalities.”

As of Jan. 1, tickets can be issued for a violation of the law. The fine is $100, and the violation is a moving offense that can be considered for administrative license suspension or habitual offender status. If a violation results in serious injury or death, the fines increase to $500 and $1,000, respectively, and a driver’s license could be suspended.

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Other factors influencing decrease in fatalities

Some of the other factors that Dinkla said could have contributed to the decrease in the number of fatal crashes this year include increased education surrounding safe use of ATVs and UTVs, as well as other DOT speeding and traffic enforcement efforts.

The number of traffic fatalities specifically related to ATV and UTV usage spiked in recent years, jumping from 4 in 2021 to 12 in 2022, 12 in 2023, and 20 in 2024. In 2025, it dropped down to 10.

Dinkla said the increase in the last few years was likely tied to a law that changed in 2022 allowing ATVs to be driven on roads, and the drop this year came after an educational effort by the DOT designed to help people stay safe on ATVs.

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“There was some question that came out of northwest Iowa and a few other counties about having a slow-moving vehicle sign on the ATVs and where they can be ridden, how they can be ridden,” Dinkla said. “So, with the confusion that was happening in several counties, as well as people registering those, the Iowa Department of Public Safety — so the Iowa State Patrol, the (Department of Natural Resources) and the DOT — worked collaboratively to get education out there.”

Dinkla also said the state patrol has seen success with an initiative started in 2023 that identified six high-crash areas on highways and designated them as “safety corridors,” where the state patrol and other law enforcement agencies in the area make an effort to increase their presence, and extra signage was added to deter speeding.

“One of the big things that works with that is, there's a lot of attention that's getting to those areas, not just by the State Patrol, but by a partnership of multiple different law enforcement agencies and entities,” Dinkla said. “When you see those officers in those areas, it definitely helps people to slow down, pay attention to what you're doing. So, that is a positive success that we are seeing out of those safety corridors.”

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