SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Transportation is employing roadside psychology to increase traffic safety awareness during the “100 deadliest days” of the year in Utah.
UDOT is using its electronic signs over freeways in hopes more people will notice and heed the safety messages.
The message Monday read, “That seat belt looks good on you."
“Some of the messages are going to be edgier, some of them are going to be lighter,” said UDOT spokesman John Gleason said. “The purpose is to start a conversation and to get people thinking about traffic safety.”
Gleason said UDOT hopes to post new, catchy messages on its electronic signs every Monday, along with updated stats on other signs for the number of days in the past week where there were no deaths.
Last week, Gleason said, there were zero fatalities for four of seven days.
Still, state transportation administrators have seen road deaths trend much higher so far in 2015 compared to the same time period last year. As of June 1, Gleason said the state had logged 99 road deaths, a 25 percent increase over 2014. Last year, there were 79 road deaths through the first five months of the year.
Since Utah entered its “100 deadliest days” the Friday before Memorial Day, Gleason said 15 deaths have occurred, or nearly 1 ½ per day.
“We have to do something different,” Gleason said.
Utah Highway Patrol Capt. Doug McCleve said he believes catchy road sign messaging will make a difference in matters such as drivers wearing seat belts.
“Over 50 percent of the crashes that we investigate in highway patrol, the fatalities are unbuckled people who are generally ejected from a rollover crash,” McCleve said.
In Sandy, driver Todd Romney said he wears his seat belt every time, but he expressed skepticism that signage would make a difference for people who don't buckle up.
“I think that people that wear their seat belt are going to wear their seat belt,” Romney said. “There’s been so much publicity about it already, I don’t think more signs about it are going to make any difference.”
Still, others said the sign immediately stood out to them.
“It’s more positive than ‘you’re going to click it or ticket,’” Floyd Swank said.
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