(Undated)—You can expect to see a higher presence of law enforcement officers on the roads now through Sunday, July 7th.
The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau and area law enforcement agencies are teaming up for the high visibility enforcement project known as STEP, or Special Traffic Enforcement Program. Officials say they’ll be cracking down on traffic violators, especially drivers and passengers not buckled up. Get caught not wearing a seatbelt and you had better be prepared to get the wallet out. A violation is going to cost you $127.50. More importantly, authorities say, is the fact that buckling up will increase your chances of surviving a crash by 50 percent.
According to statistics from the Iowa Department of Transportation, there were 117 traffic fatalities in Iowa year-to-date as of June 12th. Of those, officials say 37 were not wearing seatbelts.
During a similar enforcement project in July of last year, authorities documented nearly 16,000 traffic violations including 1,223 seat belt and 4,753 speed violations.
