Speed Limit Questions? Here’s Your Answer, July 6, 2005

Iowa’s speed regulations are based on the same basic speed law that is used in all 50 states: “Any person driving a motor vehicle on a highway shall drive the same at a careful and prudent speed not greater than nor less than is reasonable and proper, having due regard to the traffic, surface, and width of the highway and of any other conditions then existing, and no person shall drive any vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than will permit the person to bring it to a stop within the assured clear distance ahead, such driver having the right to assume, however, that all persons using said highway will observe the law.” Statutory limits are based on the concept that uniform categories of highways can be traveled safely at certain preset maximum speeds under ideal conditions. Whether the speed limit is posted or unposted, drivers should reduce their speed below these values in poor weather, heavy traffic, and under other potentially hazardous conditions.

You’re the COACH!: A Guide for Parents of New Drivers, June 23, 2008

This publication is a guide for parents and guardians of teenagers learning to drive. It should be used with the Iowa Driver’s Manual to aid you in instructing your new driver about how to safely and responsibly operate a motor vehicle. Since the task of driving is affected by changing conditions, this manual does not attempt to cover all situations that may arise. Under Iowa’s graduated driver licensing system young drivers must complete 20 hours of supervised drive time with their parents or guardians during the instruction permit stage and 10 hours during the intermediate license stage. Even though your teenager is taking or has completed driver education in school, there is a great deal of benefit to be obtained from you providing this additional practice time. Learning from your experience and under your guidance, your teenager will apply the rules of the road and more fully understand the risks involved in driving. This will require time and patience on your part, but the effort will result in you knowing that your teenager will be better able to cope with the demands of safe driving. In the back of this manual you will find several pages of diagrams. Use these diagrams to illustrate different driving situations for your teenage driver. Consider taking a notepad and pencil along during your practice sessions for additional drawings. This manual also contains a chart to log your supervised drive time. As your new driver advances through the graduated system you will be required to certify to an Iowa driver’s license examiner that you completed the minimum number of hours of supervised drive time. By becoming involved in the learning driver’s educational process, you are contributing to Iowa’s overall highway safety effort and helping your teenager develop safe driving habits that will last a lifetime.

Iowa Uniform Crime Report, 2003

SERIOUS CRIMES: the rate decreased 6.6 percent from 3,669 crimes per 100,000 population in 2002 to the adjusted rate of 3,427 crimes per 100,000 population in 2003. Also known as the Crime Index, serious crimes include the violent crimes of murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault and the property crimes of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. VIOLENT CRIMES: decreased 5.2 percent from 2002 to 2003, violent crimes dropped from an adjusted rate of 313.8 crimes per 100,000 population reported in 2002 to 297.4 crimes per 100,000 population in 2003. PROPERTY CRIMES: decreased 6.7 percent from an adjusted rate of 3,355 crimes per 100,000 population in 2002 to 3,131 crimes reported in 2003.

Speed Limit Questions? Here’s Your Answer, February 8, 2010

Iowa’s speed regulations are based on the same basic speed law that is used in all 50 states: “Any person driving a motor vehicle on a highway shall drive the same at a careful and prudent speed not greater than nor less than is reasonable and proper, having due regard to the traffic, surface, and width of the highway and of any other conditions then existing, and no person shall drive any vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than will permit the person to bring it to a stop within the assured clear distance ahead, such driver having the right to assume, however, that all persons using said highway will observe the law.” Statutory limits are based on the concept that uniform categories of highways can be traveled safely at certain preset maximum speeds under ideal conditions. Whether the speed limit is posted or unposted, drivers should reduce their speed below these values in poor weather, heavy traffic, and under other potentially hazardous conditions.

Pursuant to Section 1 of House File 466

Pursuant to Section 1 of House File 466 of the 81' General Assembly, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is required to report to the Legislative Council regarding the progress of the building project for the Motor Vehicle Division and to inform the General Assembly of any significant delays or unanticipated expenditures. The Motor Vehicle Division building project has been completed and $293,753 was reverted. This will serve as the Iowa DOT's final report and will fulfill the requirements of HF 466.

Commercial Driver License Manual, 2005

There is a federal requirement that each state have minimum standards for the licensing of commercial drivers. This manual provides driver license testing information for drivers who wish to have a commercial driver license (CDL). This manual does NOT provide information on all the federal and state requirements needed before you can drive a commercial motor vehicle (CMV). You may have to contact your state driver licensing authority for additional information.

Iowa Truck Information Guide, July 2011-December 2011

the Iowa Department of Transportation and the offices of Motor Vehicle Enforcement, Motor Carrier Services, Vehicle Services, and Drivers Services want to make your travels into and through our state safer, legal and less complicated. This book will address and clarify many of the rules and regulations concerning the operation of commercial vehicles in the state of Iowa. However, it is not possible to include every rule and regulation that may apply. If any questions exist, the reader is encouraged to contact other sources, including the agencies listed on page 4 and 5 of this book.

Interstate Highway Map Indicating Vertical Clearance, May 15, 2011

The State of Iowa [STATE] and the Iowa Department of Transportation [IDOT] hereby is claim any warranty of any kind, express or implied, in reference to the information contained herein. The STATE and the IDOT neither assume nor authorize any person to assume for the STATE or the IDOT any liability in connection with the information contained herein, and there are no oral agreements or warranties regarding the information contained herein. Each and every person is hereby notified that the vertical clearances specified herein are subject to change due to resurfacing, surface buckling, weather conditions, or any other event. It is the responsibility of each and every vehicle operator to ascertain whether sufficient ACTUAL vertical clearance exists to move his vehicle or motor vehicle between the roadway and the underpasses and bridges listed herein. The May 15 date on this map reflects the end of the update schedule for the previous calendar year. Any vertical clearance restrictions which could or may change AFTER this date will not be reflected on this map. For the latest information on vertical clearance restrictions call the Office of Motor Carrier Services in Ankeny, (515) 237-3264 or visit http://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/omcs.

School Bus Safety Study: Kadyn’s Law, December 2012

In 2012, the Iowa legislature passed a bill for an act relating to school bus safety, including providing penalties for failure to obey school bus warning lamps and stop signal arms, providing for a school bus safety study and administrative remedies, and making an appropriation. The bill, referred to as Iowa Senate File (SF) 2218 or “Kadyn’s Law,” became effective March 16, 2012. A multiagency committee addressed three specific safety study elements of Kadyn’s Law as follows: * Use of cameras mounted on school buses to enhance the safety of children riding the buses and aid in enforcement of motor vehicle laws pertaining to stop-arm violations * Feasibility of requiring school children to be picked up and dropped off on the side of the road on which their home is located * Inclusion of school bus safety as a priority in driver training curriculum This report summarizes the findings for each of these topics.

Special plates report

This report is submitted by the Iowa Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division in compliance with Administrative Rule 761-401.18(3) Discontinuance. This rule requires the department to report to the legislature if 250 paid applications for any of the special registration plates subject to this rule are not submitted within one year after the date the department makes the plate available for application in order to request authority to discontinue any of the special registration plates established under Iowa Code section 321.34, new subsections 20C, 25 and 26 as amended by 2011 Iowa Acts, House File 651, section 2.

Traumatic Brain Injury in Iowa Inpatient Hospital Data, 2003-2005

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unintentional injury is the fifth leading cause of death for all age groups and the first leading cause of death for people from 1 to 44 years of age in the United States, while homicide remains the 2nd leading cause of death for 15 to 24 years old (CDC, 2006). In 2004, there were approximately 144,000 deaths due to unintentional injuries in the US; 53% of which represent people over 45 years of age (CDC, 2004). With 20,322 suicidal deaths and 13,170 homicidal deaths, intentional injury deaths affect mostly people under 45 years old. On average, there are 1,150 unintentional deaths per year in Iowa. In 2004, 37% of unintentional deaths were due to motor vehicle accidents (MTVCC) occurring across all age ranges and 30% were due to falls involving persons over 65 years of age 82% of the time (IDPH Health Stat Div., 2004). The most debilitating outcome of injury is traumatic brain injury, which is characterized by the irreversibility of its damages, long-term effects on quality of life, and healthcare costs. The latest data available from the CDC estimated that, nationally, 50,000 traumatic brain injured (TBI) people die each year; three times as many are hospitalized and more than twenty times as many are released from emergency room (ER) departments (CDC, 2006). Besides the TBI registry, brain injury data is also captured through three other data sources: 1) death certificates; 2) hospital inpatient data; and, 3) hospital outpatient data. The inpatient and outpatient hospital data are managed by the Iowa Hospital Association, which provides to Iowa Department of Public Health the hospital data without personal identifiers. (The hospitals send reports to the Agency of Health Care Research and Quality, which developed the Health Care Utilization Project and its product, the National Inpatient Sample).

Diagnostic Tools for Identifying Sleepy Drivers in the Field, RB21-012, 2013

The overarching goal of this project was to identify and evaluate cognitive and behavioral indices that are sensitive to sleep deprivation and may help identify commercial motor vehicle drivers (CMV) who are at-risk for driving in a sleep deprived state and may prove useful in field tests administered by officers. To that end, we evaluated indices of driver physiognomy (e.g., yawning, droopy eyelids, etc.) and driver behavioral/cognitive state (e.g. distracted driving) and the sensitivity of these indices to objective measures of sleep deprivation. The measures of sleep deprivation were sampled on repeated occasions over a period of 3.5-months in each of 44 drivers diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and 22 controls (matched for gender, age within 5 years, education within 2 years, and county of residence for rural vs. urban driving). Comprehensive analyses showed that specific dimensions of driver physiognomy associated with sleepiness in previous research and face-valid composite scores of sleepiness did not: 1) distinguish participants with OSA from matched controls; 2) distinguish participants before and after PAP treatment including those who were compliant with their treatment; 3) predict levels of sleep deprivation acquired objectively from actigraphy watches, not even among those chronically sleep deprived. Those findings are consistent with large individual differences in driver physiognomy. In other words, when individuals were sleep deprived as confirmed by actigraphy watch output they did not show consistently reliable behavioral markers of being sleep deprived. This finding held whether each driver was compared to him/herself with adequate and inadequate sleep, and even among chronically sleep deprived drivers. The scientific evidence from this research study does not support the use of driver physiognomy as a valid measure of sleep deprivation or as a basis to judge whether a CMV driver is too fatigued to drive, as on the current Fatigued Driving Evaluation Checklist.. Fair and accurate determinations of CMV driver sleepiness in the field will likely require further research on alternative strategies that make use of a combination of information sources besides driver physiognomy, including work logs, actigraphy, in vehicle data recordings, GPS data on vehicle use, and performance tests.

Iowa Truck Information Guide, July 2013-July 2014

The Iowa Department of Transportation and the offices of Motor Vehicle Enforcement, Vehicle and Motor Carrier Services, and Driver Services want to make your travels into and through our state safer, legal and less complicated. This book will address and clarify many of the rules and regulations concerning the operation of commercial vehicles in the State of Iowa. However, it is not possible to include every rule and regulation that may apply. If any questions exist, the reader is encouraged to contact other sources, including the agencies listed on pages 4 and 5 of this book.

Solar Powered Highway Delineator System, HR-367, 1993

Currently, many drivers experience some difficulty in viewing the road ahead of them during times of reduced visibility, such as rain, snow, fog, or the darkness of night- Recent studies done by the National Safety Council provide a detailed contrast between fatal accidents occurring during the day and night. Revealed was that the motor vehicle night death rate (4.41 deaths per 100 million miles driven) was sharply higher than the corresponding death rate during daylight hours (1.21). By providing a delineating system powered by the natural resource of solar power, a constant source of visibility may be maintained throughout the evening. Along with providing enough light to trace the outline of the road, other major goals defined in producing this delineator system are as follows: 1. A strong and durable design that would protect the internal components and survive extreme weather conditions. 2. A low maintenance system where components need few repairs or replacements. 3. A design which makes all components accessible in the event that maintenance is needed, but also prevents vandalism. 4. A design that provides greater visibility to drivers and will not harm a vehicle or its passengers in the event of a collision. This solar powered highway delineator consists of an adjustable solar array, a light fixture, and a standard delineator pole. The solar array houses and protects the solar panels, and can be easily adjusted to obtain a maximum amount of sunlight. The light fixture primarily houses the battery, the circuit and the light assembly. Both components allow for easy accessibility and reduce vandalism using internal connections for bolts and wires. The delineator mounting pole is designed to extensively deform in the event of a collision, therefore reducing any harm caused to the vehicle and/or the passengers. The cost of a single prototype to be produced is approximately $70.00 excluding labor costs. However, these material and labor costs will be greatly reduced if a large number of delineators are produced. It is recommended that the Iowa Department of Transportation take full advantage of the research and development put into this delineator design. The principles used in creating this delineator can be used to provide an outline for drivers to follow, or on a larger scale, provide actual roadway lighting in areas where it was never before possible or economically feasible. In either event, the number of fatal accidents will be decreased due to the improved driver visibility in the evening.

An Assessment of Traffic Safety in Urban Deer Herd Management Zones in Iowa, 2010

Many states are striving to keep their deer population to a sustainable and controllable level while maximizing public safety. In Iowa, measures to control the deer population include annual deer hunts and special deer herd management plans in urban areas. While these plans may reduce the deer population, traffic safety in these areas has not been fully assessed. Using deer population data from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and data on deer-vehicle crashes and deer carcass removals from the Iowa Department of Transportation, the authors examined the relationship between deer-vehicle collisions, deer density, and land use in three urban areas in Iowa that have deer management plans in place (Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, and Iowa City) over the period 2002 to 2007. First, a comparison of deer-vehicle crash counts and deer carcass removal counts was conducted at the county level. Further, the authors estimated econometric models to investigate the factors that influence the frequency and severity of deer-vehicle crashes in these zones. Overall, the number of deer carcasses removed on the primary roads in these counties was greater than the number of reported deervehicle crashes on those roads. These differences can be attributed to a number of reasons, including variability in data reporting and data collection practices. In addition, high rates of underreporting of crashes were found on major routes that carry high volumes of traffic. This study also showed that multiple factors affect deer-vehicle crashes and corresponding injury outcomes in urban management zones. The identified roadway and non-roadway factors could be useful for identifying locations on the transportation system that significantly impact deer species and safety and for determining appropriate countermeasures for mitigation. Efforts to reduce deer density adjacent to roads and developed land and to provide wider shoulders on undivided roads are recommended. Improving the consistency and accuracy of deer carcass and deer-vehicle collision data collection methods and practices is also desirable.