The upcoming holiday weekend is typically one of the most dangerous times of the year for traffic crashes involving alcohol in Iowa. Alex Murphy, spokesman for the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says the Fourth of July weekend last year was marred by multiple fatal accidents around the state.
In 2013, six people were killed on Iowa roadways over the Independence Day weekend and three of those crashes were alcohol related. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports in 2013, the most recent year in which data is available, 512 people were killed, nationwide in motor vehicle crashes over the Fourth of July holiday.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety reports extra law enforcement officers will be patrolling Iowa roadways between July 1-7 watching for impaired drivers.
The legal limit for drunk driving in Iowa is a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08. According to the national figures, more than 20 percent of the impaired drivers involved in fatal crashes had a B-A-C of .15 or higher.
