Lee County road designated as Safety Corridor

QUINCY (WGEM) - Iowa officials are concerned about safety on the road, as 312 people have died from traffic accidents this year, up 13% higher from last year.

Iowa has designated six of the deadliest roads in Iowa as Safety Corridors and want to take steps to ensure drivers stay safe and alive on the roads.

Highway 2 from Donnellson to US 61 in Lee County is one of those safety corridors. According to Sheriff Stacey Weber, they are called out almost every day to the road.

He said it’s one of the most traveled highways in the state. Captain Craig Burch said 30,000 cars travel this road in a weeks time. He said semi trucks use it, but there’s also an orchard and pumpkin patch near the highway as well, which draws tourists to this road.

Weber said there’s a lot of accidents on the road because other highways, roads, even driveways connect to the highway, which means for those speeding, it creates a danger to those turning onto the highway. The problem is, while they have deputies on the road, they have 800 other miles of road in the county to cover which means they can’t always be on the road. With the designation of it as a safety corridor, he said he hopes this will help keep the stretch of road safe. He said they’ve noticed more accidents occurring over the past few years.

“Reasons for crashes on this highway would be excessive speed, distracted driving from mobile devices, things like that, and impairment,” Burch said.

The state has put some signs on the road cautioning drivers to stay alert and that more enforcement will be on the road. Burch hopes this will help keep drivers safe and alert. Weber said there will be extra enforcement on the road.

“It’ll get the attention more than normal from like the state troopers, the Iowa DOT officers, deputies of course, they’re gonna spend more time out there at my direction and probably not so many warnings will be given out,” Weber said.

Weber said in one day he stopped five cars on that highway for speeding. He said many drivers assumed it was ok since they hadn’t been stopped before. He said with more ticket enforcement it’ll be a good way to ensure drivers follow the speed limit. He said a lot of the deaths on the road are preventable, drivers just need to obey the speed limit and pay attention, and wear their seatbelt.

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