The Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS), Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and Med One Medical have come together to address a deadly trend on Utah roadways, drowsy driving. Drowsy drivers are responsible for at least 11 percent of the fatal accidents in our state. Our organizations have combined resources to promote public awareness of this problem in an effort to reduce the number of crashes in our state caused by drowsy driving.

The first phase of our public education efforts began over two summers ago and included media campaigns, sign projects along our freeways, public awareness displays at a variety of community events and increased focus on drowsy drivers by our state troopers.

We recruited the help of local high school's for the next phase of our campaign. DPS, UDOT and Med One sponsored a drowsy driving commercial contest in high schools around our state. Contest participants were asked to produce one 25 second television commercial about the dangers of drowsy driving. The winning commercial was aired on television in the Spring of 2005. This was an exciting contest it offered talented students the opportunity to have their work aired on television stations throughout our state and provide a valuable public service. This campaign is also unique in the U.S. and could become a national effort based on our level of success in Utah.

We hope do have future projects like this in the near feature. To view the winning video click here.