The Washington Department of Transportation is trying out pilot program with fun safety messages hoping to get drivers attention.
The messages are being tested on routes where there had been several serious or fatal collisions, including I-90, US 2, US 395, and US 195.
About 17 percent of the collisions were related to distracted driving, 7 percent being right-of-way or unsafe passing, another 7 percent were sleeping behind the wheel. The rest were related to animal strikes.
According to WSDOT, there are about 127,000 vehicles moving through Spokane daily, which is an opportunity to reach a large audience. The first message ran on November 26 ahead of Thanksgiving reading “Feast your eyes on the road, not your phone”.
WSDOT says In the coming months there will be more messages that will go up on the permanent message boards. They also have a partnership with weather forecasters to bring warnings about heavy forecasted snow. There will also be other emphasis patrols by Washington State Patrol that will offer more opportunity to be creative on the message boards.
Click through the slideshow below to see some of the messages that have reminded drivers to be safe on the roads.
