Delaware’s Office of Highway Safety (OHS) is taking a new approach to targeting speeders across the First State.
The Highway Safety Office recently kicked off “Slow Down, Arrive Alive and Don’t Pay Attention to Your Speed Demon” - its new campaign focused on getting Delawareans to obey posted speed limits.
“The new campaign is replacing what we had used - Stu - as our previous spedding campaign spokesman, who was kind of a cartoon character that we utilized to help demonstrate what happens when you speed down the road,” said Office of Highway Safety spokeswoman Cindy Cavett.
She says this new effort offers a slightly different approach.
“What we’re trying to do with this campaign is help people to understand that we are trying to make sure that they get to their destination safely, but also the other drivers, riders and pedestrians on our roadways as well,” said Cavett.
The first part of the four-part campaign ends Friday. It targets high-risk young adult males, who account for the majority of speed-related accidents and fatalities according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Cavett says in 2019, there were 34 suspected speed fatalities in Delaware. 25 of them involved males between the ages of 19-24.
She says the Highway Safety Office is reaching out to bars, athletic leagues, golf clubs and gyms to help drive home the consequences of speeding to younger drivers.
That includes the costs resulting from higher insurance premiums, as well as the danger of injury and death in accidents.
