Iowa’s 2024 traffic deaths drop, but still higher than average

Fewer people died in traffic crashes in Iowa in 2024 than did the year before, but the rate still is higher than seen in recent years — as high speeds, distracted driving, lax use of seat belts and wrong-way drivers continue to pose dangers on the state’s roadways.

According to data from the Iowa Department of Transportation, there were 351 traffic fatalities in the state in 2024, down from 378 fatalities in 2023 — but up from the average of the last five years, which is 347.

“After the year concludes, we get together with the DOT and we really try to pinpoint and go into some of these crashes, figure out why they happen,” said Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla. ”If there's a correlation where multiple fatalities are happening, is there something that we can improve on and send more resources to? By all means, we're going to do that.“

Trends in 2024 fatal crashes

One of the things that Dinkla said stood out from a cursory look at the fatal incidents this year was that several were caused by people driving the wrong way on an interstate — meaning they had entered through an exit point.

There wasn’t a consistent reason for all the wrong-way drivers — some were elderly and disoriented, and others were impaired by alcohol or drugs. But Dinkla said the patrol and the Iowa DOT are looking into ways to make signage more clear and to warn motorists when there are reports of a wrong-way driver in the area.

There are sensors on many interstate access points that alert traffic managers if someone is driving the wrong direction. So the Iowa DOT is looking into faster ways of alerting other drivers to be on the lookout after a wrong-way driver enters the freeway, according to Dinkla.

Another trend Dinkla noted in the 2024 fatal crashes is that many happened in rural areas, especially at intersections without much signage. He said the Iowa DOT constantly is working to improve safety at intersections across the state, but that drivers also need to pay close attention in rural areas to check that an intersection is clear before entering it.

ATVs and UTVs also have gotten more popular in rural areas since the state law changed in 2022 to allow the vehicles to be driven on more county and state highways and roads, although cities and counties could override the rules.

The number of traffic fatalities involving ATVs and UTVs jumped from four in 2021 to 12 in 2022 after the law was changed, and it jumped again this last year. In 2023, there were 12 ATV/UTV fatalities again, but in 2024 there were 20.

“This last year, we saw a huge rise in fatalities, but that goes right along with the trend of passing the bill letting people use these ATVs and UTVs on the roadways, and now more people jumping on that bandwagon to use those motor vehicles,” Dinkla said. “Unfortunately, most of those are being operated in an unsafe fashion.”

When driving an ATV or UTV, drivers and passengers should be wearing helmets and using seat belts, which will help prevent fatalities.

Drivers in cars and trucks also should ensure everyone in the vehicle is wearing a seat belt. Of the people who died in crashes in 2024 that could have been wearing a seat belt — meaning pedestrians and motorcyclists are excluded — only 43 percent were buckled up, according to the Iowa DOT statistics.

In Iowa, drivers and front-seat passengers — and anyone under 18 in the car — are required by law to use seat belts. However, adults sitting in the back seat are not legally required to wear seat belts.

“Many of these individuals could have walked away from that crash, or possibly not even been injured at all in the crash. Several crashes even had people that did walk away, but the only person that was killed was the person that was ejected out of the car, and that’s because they were not wearing that seat belt,” Dinkla said.

Speeding

Another contributing factor in a lot of the fatal crashes is excessive speed. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the patrol has seen an increase in people driving 100 mph or more. The number of citations written by the patrol for speeds over 100 mph in 2019 was 659, but in 2020 it jumped to 1,497. In 2024, there were 1,154 of those high-speed citations, and although it isn’t as high as it was in 2020 — and it’s actually slightly down from the 1,199 citations in 2023 — it still is concerning, Dinkla said.

“These are the type of motorists that we see being involved in a lot of our fatalities. We hope to be able to do some proactive work, go out and aggressively enforce these egregious violations that we continue to see,” Dinkla said. “People are driving 120, 130, 150 mph. It’s just absolutely uncalled for.”

The highest speed the patrol saw in 2024 was a citation for someone driving 164 mph in January.

Dinkla said he believes the decrease in these high speeds from 2023 partially can be attributed to the Iowa DOT establishing specific traffic safety corridors in areas where collisions had been happening the most often.

There are six corridors that were established at the end of 2023, where additional signage has been added and the patrol and other law enforcement agencies have been making an effort to have an increased presence for speed enforcement:

“We’ve already seen, by bringing a proactive approach … a reduction in those traffic crashes and collisions that are happening in those areas. So we’re going to continue looking at if that method is going to prove positive as far as reducing the number of fatalities,” Dinkla said.

Hands-free driving legislation

The patrol and the Iowa DOT also have been working to bring a bill to the Iowa Legislature that would make it illegal to use handheld cellphones and other devices while driving — but allow hands-free technology to continue to use the devices.

Currently in Iowa, it is illegal to text while driving, but that law can be hard to enforce since other forms of cellphone use are legal, according to Dinkla.

“We're going to be really pushing hard, because we've already seen that neighboring states around us have recently enacted hands-free legislation, and they have seen a reduction in their fatalities and crashes all around those neighboring states, and so we hope to do the same thing here in the near future for Iowa,” Dinkla said.

A hands-free driving bill has been brought forward regularly for the past few years, but has yet to make it through the Legislature. In 2023, it passed overwhelmingly in the Iowa Senate, but did not make it through the Iowa House. In 2024, the bill was combined with legislation that would ban traffic enforcement cameras, and failed to advance in the legislative session.

Despite bipartisan and law enforcement support, a libertarian wing of Republicans in the GOP-controlled House objected to the legislation, saying it infringes on Iowans’ individual rights.

During her annual Condition of the State address Tuesday, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, for the first time publicly, pressed lawmakers to pass a hands-free driving bill.

“For the sake of all our loved ones on the road, let’s finally pass legislation that requires drivers to keep their eyes on the road and away from their phones,” she said.

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Tom Barton of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.