Nat’l Distracted Driving Awareness Month

I wanted to advise you that the NJ Division of Highway Traffic Safety’s #TakeControlOfYourDestiny Distracted Driving Awareness Campaign will be launched today at the beginning of April’s National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The #TakeControlOfYourDestiny campaign urges drivers to take control of their destiny by NEVER driving distracted.

As you may know, sending or receiving a text takes a driver's eyes away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, which is the equivalent (at 55 mph) of driving the length of an entire football field blind. That text could cause a deadly crash, robbing drivers and others around them of their destinies including attending college, pursuing a career, traveling to a favorite beach or mountain destination, enjoying passions such as music or photography, getting married, having a family, and enjoying retirement.

DHTS’s new #TakeControlOfYourDestiny campaign illustrates these and other future goals the public may have for themselves as a reminder to always drive with their hands on the wheel and away from phone calls and texts, food, makeup, and other distractions in their vehicle so they can drive safely into the future that awaits them. We hope the public will feel inspired by the campaign’s colorful “Painted Wheels” when they see them on social media, at rest stops on New Jersey’s roadways, in shopping malls, and on streaming audio channels and pledge to never drive distracted to ensure they stay alive to achieve their life goals. For more information and downloadable materials on the #TakeControlOfYourDestiny campaign, we encourage you to visit: www.NJSafeRoads.com/Destiny.

We would truly appreciate your help in spreading the word about this campaign on whatever platform best fits your agency, whether it’s including information and a link to our campaign website in your newsletters, sharing DHTS’s #TakeControlOfYourDestiny Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts on your own pages, spreading distracted driving awareness information with the hashtag #TakeControlOfYourDestiny, etc. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time for more information, materials, or questions on this campaign.

Thank you, as always, for helping our Division save lives as we move towards zero deaths on New Jersey’s roadways.