Editorial: While tough to enforce, Iowa's new hands-free driving law can save lives
On July 1, Iowa's new hands-free driving law went into effect.
Since then, Iowa law enforcement has issued more than 1,400 warnings to drivers. This was the promise made. Initially officers would issue warnings, not citations in an effort to educate drivers. They've been busy doing just that, and we couldn't be more grateful.
I know many were concerned that nothing would change once the law went into effect. And we all knew policing this would be challenging. Law enforcement is taking on this challenge and using every interaction to enforce and educate drivers about the dangers of texting and driving. And we're hopeful this will have the desired impact — to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities caused by texting and driving.
Spend a few minutes driving from downtown to the western suburbs and you can see many examples of distracted driving. Drivers texting. Or talking on the phone. It's clearly still a major problem.
If this law can help one less family avoid tragedy, keep one more young person from completely ruining their life, and ultimately make our roads safer, than we're grateful. But it takes more than a law. It takes officers willing to put in the work necessary to enforce this law. We're grateful to every state patrol, sheriff and police officer who has taken the time to address this serious issue with a driver. Here's to safer roads, and improved highway fatality statistics.