contributed photo This driver was stopped Friday night on Interstate 880 heading to Des Moines. The Iowa State Patrol clocked the driver going 121 mph.

DES MOINES – The Iowa State Patrol is leading Iowa’s statewide Traffic Fatality Reduction Task Force in an effort to reduce deaths on Iowa roadways. As part of that effort the Patrol will conduct a special enforcement initiative geared toward reduction of speeding drivers on Thursday. This time period is one of the most deadly in the state according to the past 10 years of crash data.

Since the start of the pandemic, Iowa has seen a significant increase in drivers greatly exceeding the speed limit, putting everyone on the road in danger. Recent data released from the Iowa State Patrol, tracking speeding violations from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2020, shows a 74 percent increase in drivers exceeding the speed limit by 25 mph or more.

Even more alarming are patterns in the data identifying that a total of 1,497 drivers were cited for speeds that exceeded 100 mph. Violations for these flagrant speeds increased 108 percent compared to the four-year average.

Troopers routinely clocked speeds as high as 121 to 155 mph on roads throughout Iowa.

The eventual goal for fatalities in Iowa is ZERO, but the incremental goal for 2021 is less than 300, down from 338 in 2020. If achieved, this will be the first time Iowa traffic fatalities were less than 300 lives since 1925. As of today, there have been 235 deaths on Iowa’s roadways – that’s 10 more fatalities than this date last year.