The Delaware Office of Highway Safety (OHS) recently launched a new education and outreach campaign that focuses on a specific form of impaired driving.
The campaign is Highway Safety’s first attempt at a drug impaired driving awareness campaign.
“It’s called the “Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Campaign,” said Cynthia Cavett, OHS Marketing Specialist and Public Information Officer. "And we’re trying to promote education around the dangers of driving while impaired under drugs - specifically. We’re trying to help people understand exactly what happens while driving under the influence of drugs or substances that can impair their ability to drive.”
Cavett notes that even though it’s 2020 - campaigns like this are still necessary.
"Unfortunately there are some people that believe drugs can actually help them to drive better. One of the common issues that we are seeing is that folks think that marijuana can make them drive better. However, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs actually impair the ability to drive because they slow coordination, judgement and reaction time.”
Cavett says they’ll use social media and radio and television spots to reach people, along with aggressive grassroots and partnership outreach.
The message centers on the long-term consequences of acting on the short-term desire to “not miss out” by using drugs and then driving.
Cavett says the campaign runs through September.
“They’re going to see images of critical moments in the lives of people that they could have potentially missed because of being impaired by drugs or what happened as a result of somebody else using drugs taking those moments away from those folks.”
So far in 2020 - Delaware has 10 confirmed fatalities involving people driving impaired under the influence of drugs.
The Office of Highway Safety is partnering with First State dispensaries and head and vape shops to educate people about the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs.
