Steer It Clear It Law Reminder

The Iowa Department of Transportation would like to remind drivers of a common law that may get overlooked too often. Iowa’s “Steer It Clear It” law requires drivers involved in a crash with no serious injuries to move the vehicles out of the driving lanes of traffic. Of course, you should only attempt this if it is safe to do so.

Moving your vehicle out of the lane of traffic and off to the shoulder helps prevent other crashes from happening. Also, almost nobody enjoys arriving at their destination late, and keeping your car in the way of traffic increases travel times.

Astonishingly, there are approximately 55,000 crashes in Iowa every year. Every minute that a lane is blocked increases the likelihood of a secondary crash occurring by 2.8%. By just thirty minutes, the chance of another crash happening is very high. Every minute of blocked traffic equals four minutes of delay for the rest of the traffic.