Ankeny Police Department To Conduct Special Enforcement On March 17

Press release from the City of Ankeny:

March 16, 2021

If you are heading out to a St. Patrick’s Day celebration this year, make sure to have more than just the luck o’ the Irish on your side. The Ankeny Police Department is joining Iowa’s statewide Traffic Fatality Reduction Task Force to reduce deaths on Iowa roadways. As part of that effort, the Ankeny Police Department will be conducting a special enforcement initiative geared toward seat belt compliance and the reduction of impaired drivers around the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. This time period is one of the deadliest in the state according to the past 10 years of crash data.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY CAN BE UNLUCKY

• In Iowa, March 17 is typically one of the biggest drinking nights of the year and, unfortunately, means more impaired drivers on the roads.
• In 2019 in Iowa, there were two crashes over the holiday that killed four people.
• Drunk driving accounts for nearly one-third of vehicle related fatalities in Iowa and in the United States.
• Nationally, in 2018 alone, 73 people (39 percent of all crash fatalities) were killed in drunk-driving crashes over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday period and 33 percent of the pedestrians aged 16 and older killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit.

The eventual goal for fatalities in Iowa is ZERO, but the incremental goal for 2021 is under 300, down from 338 in 2020. If achieved, this will be the first time Iowa traffic fatalities were under 300 lives since 1925.

Please contact Sgt. Mark Moeller at (515) 289-5262 or mmoeller@ankenyiowa.gov with questions regarding the Ankeny Police Department special enforcement initiative.

This press release was produced by the City of Ankeny. The views expressed here are the author’s own.