20-05-2025
Iowa trooper tells you how to stay safe in Memorial Day Weekend traffic
Memorial Day Weekend means a lot more drivers will hit the road.
Our Quad Cities News photojournalist Mike Colón got a ride along with an Iowa state trooper to show one simple move can help make sure you get where you're going safely.
Iowa State Patrol partners with other agencies for the Click It or Risk It campaign to ensure everyone wears their seat belts – and wears them properly, said Lt. Brian Votroubek.
'That includes car seats,' Votroubek said. 'It's very important that car seats are used and the car seats are used and buckled in properly as well. You need to know if your child needs to be in a car seat, if they need to be in a booster seat, or just have a seat belt. It all depends on the size of your child or young one.'
'Crashes with kids are hard,' he said. 'Almost every one of us has children at home or brothers and sisters and there's nothing worse than to see a child seriously injured or killed in a car crash.'
In 2024, 44 percent of the fatalities in Iowa involved unbuckled travelers. 'That resulted in 108 lives lost and that's something that we can prevent with education to parents, to everybody out there that operates a motor vehicle.'
Votroubek said the Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau did a survey recently that showed that 88 percent of people in Iowa said they wear their seat belts, but 67 percent said they don't buckle up if they're in the back seat.
'It's very important to have it on no matter where you are,' he said. 'If you're in a rollover crash, whether you're in the front seat or back seat, you could be injured, so it's important to have the seat belt on no matter where you're at inside the vehicle. Even on a short trip, it could be one stop sign two blocks from your house somebody runs through, and if you're not buckled, serious injury could occur.'
Police also say to remember to slow down and put down the cell phone to be a safe driver.
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