Delaware Office of Highway Safety kicks off localized campaign

DOVER — The Delaware Office of Highway Safety recently kicked off their new “Drive Safe Delaware. Love Your Neighbor” campaign.

The campaign is using a hyperlocal approach to determine the shared concerns of Delaware’s roadways for residents across the state. The office collaborated with municipalities, town halls, law enforcement and first responders and used traffic data to create the campaigns.

“This is a new approach that the Office of Highway Safety wanted to try to try to make a more hyper localized campaign,” said Meghan Niddrie, a community relations officer for the Delaware Office of Highway Safety. “Delaware is a small state with only three counties, but each county is very different in their own way.”

They hope that the localized messages resonate with their audiences more than a statewide one would.

“We wanted to try to have the messaging hit home a little bit more by honing it in on different ZIP codes and getting feedback from Delawareans,” said Ms. Niddrie.

The areas that are targeted will be educated on roadway safety, with specific concerns of their area.

“We will be distributing educational materials to the communities that we have targeted,” said Ms. Niddrie. “Each county is being localized by towns and even as far as schools.”

There will be yard signs, posters and palm cards distributed with the information. In Kent County, materials have already been given to Dover High School, Delaware State University and at the Baila Con Dover Latin Festival, Delaware Caribbean Festival and Family Emergency Preparedness Day.

The Delaware Office of Highway Safety provided statistics from 2019 to 2023 for each county about roadway safety concerns.

The DUI statistics included 147 crashes that resulted in serious injury or fatality for New Castle County, 68 for Kent County and 141 in Sussex County.

They also provided statistics about speed crashes in each county from 2019-2023.

There were 63 speed crashes in New Castle County that resulted in serious injury or fatality, 23 in Kent County and 32 in Sussex County.

“This messaging is about saving lives and making Delaware roads safer,” said Ms. Niddrie. “It is to remind people that we all have a shared responsibility to drive safe and each person’s safe driving behaviors affects their entire community, not just them.”

For more information about the campaign visit www.arrivealivede.com .