NIT – 2014 has gotten off to a deadly start for Iowa motorists.
After another confirmed fatality, the total number of dead on Iowa roadways stands at fourteen since the start of the new year, according to a 2014 Iowa Traffic Fatality Count released Monday. In all of January last year, 22 people died on Iowa roadways. In 2012 – an especially bad year for drivers – 39 perished.
Locally, vehicles were sliding into ditches for much of Friday and Saturday over the weekend until a blast of warm air passed through on Sunday. At 1:17 PM In one Saturday incident, a two-vehicle collision was reported in Floyd county at 180th Street and Echo Avenue (southwest of Rudd) intersection with several persons reportedly injured.
Around the state, most of the carnage took place on Friday, January 10th. Icy roads made for treacherous driving conditions across the state.
The latest confirmed fatality was in Lucas county, Iowa on January 10th at about 6:21 PM. A 75-year-old man, Ronald D. Woods, was pulling a trailer with his 2010 Ford pickup when he lost control on an icy bridge and entered a ditch, striking a tree. He died from his injuries in a nearby hospital.
Also on Friday, January 10th, in Fayette County, four people died and two were in serious condition after a two-vehicle crash there Friday morning, according to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
Making Friday even more deadly, on Friday evening, a one-vehicle accident on Interstate 80 southwest of Des Moines claimed the lives of five people from Nebraska. The driver lost control of a camaro the group was riding in, crossed the median and then crossed the opposite lanes of the interstate and entered a field, where the car rolled, killing all inside.
Perhaps most tragically on Friday, a two-car accident on a completely ice-covered roadway near Marengo, Iowa, claimed the life of a 4-year-old girl from Williamsburg, Iowa.
