April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Dave Pabst is director of the state Bureau of Transportation Safety, and says distracted driving is a growing and deadly reality in Wisconsin.
“Last year, 113 people were killed in crashes were at least one of the drivers was driving inattentively,” Pabst says. “Compared to the year before, that’s a 10 percent increase. That’s huge.”
Pabst says the prevalence of cell phones, with text email and app alerts, is proving too much. “You get addicted to it, literally. People need to turn them off, put the phone away, and pay attention to driving.”
To help motivate people to pay attention behind the wheel, WisDOT will air TV, radio and online messages that creatively highlight how distracted driving is entirely preventable.
The video messages, featuring a new super-villain known as the “Distractor,” also are available on WisDOT’s You Tube channel.