SDOT and AARP Seattle are launching a new public service campaign that highlights safety tips for people driving and walking. The campaign is part of Seattle’s Vision Zero plan to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030.
Video, online, and radio announcements will run throughout September on KOMO 4 TV, Univision Seattle, KOMO News Radio, KVI Talk Radio and KOMOnews.com. The campaign’s timing coincides with the historic trend of collisions increasing during the darker and wetter months of fall and winter.
Seattle is aggressively working to reduce serious and fatal collisions on our streets through Vision Zero. Partnering with AARP on this campaign allows the city to reach drivers and our most vulnerable residents to enhance the safety of our roads.
While Seattle is consistently recognized as one of the safest cities in the country, more than 10,000 traffic collisions occur each year. In 2014, there were 3,449 injury collisions reported to the Seattle Police Department. 15 people died due to those crashes in 2014, including five who were walking or riding a bike.
Education is a key component to help keep our most vulnerable populations (people young and old, walking and biking) safe and achieve Vision Zero in Seattle – a term that comes from the belief that death and injury on city streets are preventable. This is the second year that SDOT and AARP have teamed up on traffic safety. The public service announcements are being made possible with a grant from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and funding from AARP.
People over age 50 are particularly vulnerable on Seattle’s streets, representing 70 percent of pedestrian fatalities in the last three years. As a partner in Vision Zero, AARP Seattle is working with the City to help raise safety awareness and prevent collisions.
The City of Seattle is committed to ending traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. Earlier this year, Seattle launched Vision Zero to design smarter streets, enforce existing laws, and educate the public on safe travel behavior. For more information, visit http://www.seattle.gov/visionzero.
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of nearly 38 million, that helps people turn their goals and dreams into real possibilities, strengthens communities and fights for the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare, employment and income security, retirement planning, affordable utilities and protection from financial abuse. http://www.aarp.org
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