Message To Maine Drivers: Survive Your Drive
The Maine Bureau of Highway Safety has developed a campaign to help make highways safer.
Survive Your Drive was created to inform Mainers on the importance of safe driving and how to avoid behaviors that lead to fatal crashes. The educational campaign focuses on seat belt usage, impaired and distracted driving, speeding, and other unsafe driving behaviors. The underlining message the safety campaign sends is for drivers to be responsible when behind a wheel.
Thanks in part to similar safe driving programs in recent years, driving statistics in Maine have improved. However, these same statistics show that there is still work to be done.
The Survive Your Drive campaign emphasizes four key components:
- Drunk Driving – Though alcohol related fatalities decreased by 33 percent in 2008, alcohol contributed to 24 percent of accident fatalities in Maine last year.
- Seatbelts – Thanks to Maine’s Click it or Ticket campaign, 88 percent of Mainers currently wear seatbelts. However, 41 percent of accident fatalities in 2008 were not wearing seatbelts.
- Driving Safety – Crash rates in Maine decreased by 5.3 percent in 2008, with highway crashes decreasing by 15.3 percent. However, accidents caused by inattentive driving were up 8.3 percent.
- Teenage Driving – Though driving fatalities among teens has decreased in recent years, in 2008, 36 Maine teenagers were involved in fatal car crashes.
The Survive Your Drive campaign began on November 12, 2009, and has been educating Mainers via television commercials, radio ads, press releases, and an online presence. The campaign couples with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Drunk Driving. Over The Limit. Under Arrest. campaign which cracks down on impaired driving during holiday seasons. The current NHTSA campaign runs from December 16, 2009 – January 3, 2010 and plans to spend $7.5 million educating Americans nationwide on the dangers of drinking and driving.
In 2008, fatal crash rates in Maine decreased from the previous year by 5.3 percent, marking the lowest the state has seen since 1959. However, Maine’s fatal crash rate continues to be above the national average. Through educational campaigns such as Survive Your Drive and Over The Limit. Under Arrest. Mainers will continue to learn how to make better driving decisions, ultimately keeping themselves and others out of harm’s way.
At the Law Offices of Joe Bornstein, we see firsthand the effects of serious motor vehicle accidents. If you’ve been hurt in a car accident by the negligence of someone else, call us today for a free and confidential consultation. In over 35 years of practice, we have helped over 15,000 Mainers get the justice they deserve.
And the next time you’re on the road, follow the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety’s advice:
Be safe and Survive Your Drive.
For more information on the Survive Your Drive campaign please visit: www.surviveyourdrive.org
