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St. Patrick's Day Impaired Driving Campaign (March 11-17)

St. Patrick's Day is on a Sunday this year. Last year, when the holiday landed on a Friday, 93 crashes resulted in 4 deaths and 45 injuries due to drinking and driving during St. Patrick's Day weekend. DMV's Highway Safety Office encourages you to share these resources within your community to help everyone celebrate responsibly.

This year's St. Patrick's Day campaign is from March 15 - 17. To work toward preventing drunk driving crashes, injuries, and deaths, DMV encourages our partners to use the Washington Regional Alcohol Program's "Act Like It" creatives to remind drivers?to plan ahead for a safe ride home and never to drive after drinking.

If you have questions, please feel free to reach out. Thank you in advance for your efforts in the fight to end drunk driving and save lives.


Motorists' Awareness of Motorcycles (March 20 – April 3)

Warm weather brings sunshine, clear skies, and motorcyclists! Soon, we'll be seeing more and more of our motorcycling community returning to our Virginia roadways. Between March 20 – April 3, 2024, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles is launching a public media campaign featuring a video titled "Drivers: Take a Second Look for Motorcyclists." This campaign aims to change drivers' behavior and increase their awareness of motorcyclists on the roadways.  

Inattentional blindness is described as the tendency to miss even the most conspicuous events unless one is paying close attention. It is important that both the driver and motorcyclist understand the limits of their vision and watch out for each other. To see and be seen is a lifesaving strategy for us all.

We ask our partners to spread the message by sharing these creatives  on your agency's or organization's social media accounts as we share with Virginian drivers and motorcyclists the importance of working together to see and be seen. 

Here are some additional resources to reduce crashes and save lives in our communities.


Springing Forward – Drowsy Driving Prevention (March)

"Springing Forward" is fast approaching... Soon we will be losing an hour of sleep! This is a great time to remind our communities to prepare and avoid driving drowsy. DMV encourages everyone to prioritize rest before driving.

According to 2023 preliminary data, 23 people were killed and 1,604 were injured in 3,152 crashes involving drowsy drivers.   

Please share these resources in your community to help prevent drowsy driving: 


Campaign to Reduce Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis

The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority asks you to join them in their new campaign to reduce the number of Virginians who drive under the influence of cannabis. 

Your support in sharing critical safe driving messages is invaluable. Here's how you can make a difference: 

  • Distribute materials from the digital toolkit.  
  • Print and post these posters and flyers.  
  • Add this URL to your website and direct people there to learn more about safe driving. 
  • Share their pledge. They're asking Virginians to commit themselves to never driving under the influence of cannabis. 

If you have any questions, please visit cca.virginia.gov or email PublicAffairs@cca.virginia.gov.

 


Crash Investigation and Reconstruction Training

The Virginia Highway Safety Office is pleased to offer classes in crash investigation and reconstruction. Available courses are:

For more information, click the corresponding link for the course information.


New Speed Prevention Media Campaign

Highway Safety partner, 

We are excited to inform you of the launch of our new speed prevention media campaign on October 24, 2023!

This campaign was created using focus groups to determine the cause of speeding and how we can get people to slow down. The campaign highlights the different consequences of speeding to educate drivers that speeding can affect you and others in many ways.

Please share our new speed campaign with your communities to spread awareness of the consequences of speeding:

We thank you for your continued efforts in keeping our roadways safe for all road users.


DMV Debuts Refreshed Virginia Driver's License and ID Card Design
New look celebrates Virginia, enhances security

RICHMOND – Beginning today, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is releasing a refreshed design of Virginia driver's licenses and ID cards.  The new credentials incorporate the next generation of enhanced security features that are resistant to counterfeiting and illustrate the beauty of iconic Virginia imagery. Read more



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State Safety Belt Usage Rate (2021):

81.7%

2020 Rate: 85.4%

Traffic fatalities on VA’s
highways through
March 6, 2024

(preliminary):

119
(Compared to 141 at this time last year)

Source: TREDS

 

All Traffic Safety Photos