The Jefferson police department and the Greene County sheriff’s office will participated in a special Traffic Enforcement Project (sTEP) Aug. 23 – Sept. 5, with an emphasis on impaired driving and seat belt usage.
According to statistics, almost one-third of all traffic crash fatalities in the U.S. and in Iowa involve drunk drivers. During the 2014 (the last year for which statistics are available) Labor Day holiday weekend, 40 percent of the fatalities in traffic crashes involved drunk drivers. That was the highest percentage in more than five years.
Wearing a seat belt is the single most effective thing a driver or passenger can do to protect themselves in a crash. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report shows that seat belts save more than 13,000 lives per year. That is more than the population of most Iowa towns and it takes only about four seconds to buckle up.
