Oskaloosa Police Department to conduct special enforcement March 17
An Oskaloosa Police Department Press Release
Oskaloosa, Iowa – March 10, 2021 – If you are heading out to a St. Patrick’s Day celebration this year, make sure to have more than just the luck o’ the Irish on your side. The Oskaloosa Police Department is joining Iowa’s statewide Traffic Fatality Task Force in an effort to reduce deaths on Iowa roadways. As part of that effort Oskaloosa Police Department, will be conducting a special enforcement initiative geared toward seat belt compliance and the reduction of impaired drivers around the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. This time period is one of the most deadly in the state according to the past 10 years of crash data.
ST. PATRICK’S DAY CAN BE UNLUCKY
• In Iowa, March 17 is typically one of the biggest drinking nights of the year and, unfortunately, means more impaired drivers on the roads.
• In 2019 in Iowa, there were two crashes over the holiday which killed four people. Drunk driving accounts for nearly one-third of vehicle related fatalities in Iowa and in the United States.
• Nationally, in 2018 alone, 73 people (39 percent of all crash fatalities) were killed in drunk-driving crashes over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday period and 33 percent of the pedestrians aged 16 and older killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit.
The eventual goal for fatalities in Iowa is ZERO, but the incremental goal for 2021 is under 300, down from 338 in 2020. If achieved, this will be the first time Iowa traffic fatalities were under 300 lives since 1925.
