Highway 218 enters Danger Zone

MT. PLEASANT — Henry County Sheriff’s Office received a notification stating that a segment of Highway 218 has now entered “the danger zone.”

According to Henry County Sheriff Rich McNamee, the office received the notification from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) last week.

“The Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced earlier this week from the Lee County line to mile marker 40, which is the high school exit right out here, has now crept into the danger zone,” McNamee said.

According to McNamee, this segment of highway holds “one of the most severe crash ratings in the state of Iowa, along with Highway 61.”

“So obviously we got some work to do,” he said. “They specifically said the intersection of Salem Road and Highway 218 is one of the worst intersections in the state.”

“Salem Stub corner is one of the most dangerous areas in the state,” McNamee stated. “So, we're going to focus some attention down there and try and make an impact and stop some of those crashes.”

McNamee encourages motorists to use caution on all roads, but to use extra caution on this “specifically dangerous part of our county.”

The Henry County Sheriff’s Office will give special attention to this area over the next couple of years in hopes of making improvements.

While the Henry County Sheriff’s Office wants to improv this stretch of road for safety’s sake, federal funding connected to GTSB and NHTSA also encourages the push.

“GTSB and NHTSA always work together, so federal dollars get sent from NHTSA to GTSB, which is state, state organization, and they provide funding to local law enforcement to increase overtime and enforcement of laws,” McNamee said.

According to NHTSA, these entities work “in partnership with public and private entities, highway safety programs are developed and implemented to reduce traffic crashes and resulting fatalities, injuries, and property damage.”

These programs focus on enforcement, education, outreach, data collection, and engineering to improve traffic safety.

“Statewide crash data are utilized for a performance-based approach with the goal of encouraging safe driving behaviors,” NHTSA states in their explanation of the Crash Reporting Sampling System.

As part of their partnership with NHTSA and GTSB, the Henry County Sheriff’s Office also works to improv traffic safety through county wide projects.

In the month of January, the department focused on traffic violations near and in school zones with heightened enforcement of speed, stop signs, use of cellphones, and seat belt compliance.

On March 29, the department conducted a “Move Over” enforcement and education project north of Mt. Pleasant.

“We utilized a Henry County Secondary Roads dump truck and placed it along the roadway with amber/orange lights activated,” the department reported. “Our goal was to stop, educate, and warn all violations of the move over law.”

According to the Sheriff’s Office, in eight hours, officers issued 42 warnings for move over violations, one warning for a stop sign violation, three for distracted driving, and two other citations.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com