(Update 8:25-a.m.) A portion of I-80 West between Adair and Casey has been shut down Tuesday morning because of several crashes. According to Iowa State Patrol, I-80 West between the 77 and 83 mile marker is shut down. There are currently four crashes. A couple of them are personal injuries. At least four semis are on their sides. A detour is in-place at Highway 25.

I-29 southbound in Council Bluffs is closed between N. 15th and N. 25th Streets (Exits 55-56) due to water over the road. A detour is in-place.

Highway 169 between Highways 6 and 44 (Adel) is closed due to flooding. A detour is in-place.

(Radio Iowa) — The state is proposing a change in rules to require that all new school buses must have seatbelts. The Des Moines School System has been purchasing new buses with the lap/shoulder belts for a couple of years now. The district’s transportation safety specialist, Robin Witt, says reaction is mixed when the issue is brought up to bus drivers. “They’re good and bad, I will tell you that. And it’s basically all what your beliefs have been,” Witt says. “I’ve been in busing since 2005 — and of course I originally thought when I heard seatbelts was ‘oh my goodness, how are we going to get them out in case of a fire’?”

She learned that fear was not an issue. “Kids can still get out of the seatbelts, and we do have seatbelt cutters just in case there is a problem with one or two. And I believe with the safety issue of kids sitting down, seatbelts are great, because they are belted into their seats,” Witt says. She says the designed of the seats on buses makes it important that the kids are sitting to avoid injuries. “Because they’re not sitting they can end up wrenching their back on the seat if they are standing or walking around. With the seatbelts, yeah, they do stay in the seat. It is so much better that way,” Witt says.

Witt drives a bus and says there are different adjustment periods for kids to adapt to the belts based on their age and experience. “The little kids that have never been on a bus before, yes, it’s like second nature. However, even our elementary kids who have been riding buses for a couple of years and all of a sudden you bring a seatbelt bus to them, they are like ‘no, no.’ They don’t just get in the seat and buckle up, you have to tell them,” according to Witt.

Witt says the bus she drives does not have seatbelts on it and her kids complained when she was gone and the fill-in driver used a bus with seatbelts on it. Buses can have 60 or more kids on them, and Witt says drivers are concerned about getting all the kids to wear seatbelts and whether the driver will get in trouble if the kids don’t . But she believes the kids can adapt. “If you had to go seat to seat to make sure somebody is belted — we would never be able to get them home on time or get them to school on time,” Witt says. “It’s going to be a learning curve. And the kids are going to have to learn when they get in to put their seatbelts on, and then we can go.”

Witt says the drivers do like the idea of having fewer discipline problems during bus trips because the students are buckled in. The State Board of Education has given approval to a plan that would require schools to belts in the new buses they order.

Officials with the Creston Police Department report 42-year old Douglas Stevens, of Creston, was arrested at around 4:52-a.m. today (Tuesday), for Driving While Barred. Stevens was subsequently released from the Union County Jail on a $2000 bond.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety reports a central Iowa man was arrested in connection with the death of a Madison County woman. Authorities say at around 11:10-p.m., Monday, Madison County 911 received a call of an unresponsive female at 121 E. Lane Street, Lot #1, in Winterset. Responding Winterset police officers found 23-year old Rosanna Otto deceased inside the home from an apparent gunshot wound.

Jerome “Jerry” Moyer

The Winterset Police Department and the Division of Criminal Investigation identified 25-year old Jerome “Jerry” Moyer, of Norwalk, as a suspect in the woman’s death.  Moyer was arrested without incident by the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office following a traffic stop. He was being held in the Dubuque County Jail on the charge of Murder in the First Degree. Moyer will be transported to the Madison County Jail at a later date.