The Delaware Office of Highway Safety announces a new campaign to help increase safety on the roads.
The educational and motivational initiative is “Drive Safe Delaware. Love Your Neighbor.”
The campaign is an extended and integrated marketing and communications strategy that encourages Delawareans to follow safe driving protocols when it comes to speed, driving under the influence and more.
It reminds Delawareans that they are where road safety starts, and encourages everyone to recognize the ripple effect one person can have by driving safely.
It’s a localized effort using a more grassroots approach, targeting each county to reach Delawareans where they are like local bars and restaurants, retail stores, high schools and colleges and more.
OHS community relations officer Meghan Niddrie explains how this hyperlocal approach was developed.
"Specifically, those came from feedback that we got from Delawareans in each county,” said Niddrie. “We hosted town halls and got feedback right from the public on their road safety concerns. We also got feedback from local law enforcement and first responders on their road safety concerns to kind of help develop the beginning of this campaign and pick what areas to kind of focus on first."
The hope is for the messaging to hit home and be on a more personalized level.
"So we've also used localized data to get the actual numbers and where we're seeing higher numbers of crashes to kind of help hone in on those areas that we need to focus on," said Niddrie.
Efforts focused on speed and DUI/DUID will continue through 2025.
DUI/DUID Statistics per County in Delaware (2019–2023)
- New Castle County: 147 crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injury.
- Kent County: 68 crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injury.
- Sussex County: 141 crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injury.
Speed Statistics per County in Delaware (2019–2023)
- New Castle County: 63 crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injury.
- Kent County: 23 crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injury.
- Sussex County: 32 crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injury.
