(Radio Iowa) – A lot of people are hitting the highways to see relatives this weekend and into next week for Christmas and New Year’s. Iowa State Patrol Trooper Kari Yaneff says there will be extra state and local officers on the roadways. Yaneff says there continues to be excessive speeding — and that combined with holiday drinking and possible winter weather — could lead to a deadly situation. Yaneff says we haven’t had much snow here yet, but it is a possibility. She says a trooper just recently stopped a driver going more than 90 miles an hour while also driving impaired. “Having that speed and the person being impaired at 2:30 in the afternoon is pretty scary,” Yaneff says.

She says if you take anything that is going to impact your driving — let someone else take the wheel. “I think everyone just needs to remind themselves if they are going to have a great time with family and friends, just making sure that they are responsible. If you are going to be drinking too much — please be sure you have a designated driver. If you are participating in some illegal controlled substances, making sure that we are also being responsible and not getting behind the wheel too,” she says.  Trooper Yaneff says driving too fast remains a key factor in accidents whether you are impaired or not. She says about 90 percent of crashes are caused by speeding, with distracted driving also contributing.

Yaneff says their goal was to get under 300 traffic death this year. “Unfortunately, we’ve already exceeded that, so I am praying that nobody else will get into any fatality crashes,” Yaneff says. She says you can avoid being a statistic by buckling up, putting down the phone, and refrain from driving and texting, slowing down, and driving defensively.

(Neola, Iowa) – The driver of a semi tractor trailer died during a crash Thursday afternoon, in Pottawattamie County. The Iowa State Patrol reports the 2006 Kenworth semi registered to a trucking company from Elkton, South Dakota and driven by 63-year-old Donald Roller, of Sioux City, Iowa, was negotiating the exit 27 curve on Interstate 80 eastbound to westbound I-880 at around 3:36-p.m., when the vehicle ran off the road to the right.

As the rig rolled down the embankment, Roller was ejected and died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt. Both the semi and the driver came to rest in the ditch.

The man’s body was transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny. The Patrol was assisted at the scene by Neola Rescue and Pott. County Sheriff’s Deputies.

At least three accidents in southwest Iowa Thursday morning, were primarily attributed to frost covered roads. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday, an accident at around 7:09-a.m. occurred on Highway 34, about one-quarter of a mile west of A Avenue (near the Mills County line).

A 1996 GMC Sonoma pickup driven 24-year-old Abraham Garcia, of Bellevue, Nebraska, was traveling eastbound, when the vehicle lost traction due to the frost, and went out of control. The pickup entered the south ditch and rolled over before coming to rest on its wheels. Garcia was checked-out by personnel from Emerson Fire/Rescue and Red Oak Rescue, but refused treatment.

The pickup, owned by Patricia Garcia, of Bellevue, sustained about $3,500 damage, was was considered a total loss. There were no citations were issued. And, as previously mentioned, an SUV rollover accident happened at around 7:20-a.m. Thursday on Highway 34 in Union County. The driver, 19-year-old Destiny Ashby, of Murray, was transported by private vehicle to the hospital in Creston.

And, an accident on a frost/ice covered Olive Street north of Atlantic, caused a van driven by 20-year Avery Andersen, of rural Atlantic, to go out of control and roll into the west ditch, about one-half mile north of the Pymosa School/Atlantic Head Start building. Andersen died at the scene of the crash that took place at approximately 8:55-a.m.