Looking back at past Safety Message Contest winners

ADOT announced the winners of our Safety Message Contest earlier this week, marking the completion of our fourth annual contest. Back in 2017, when we launched the first one, we weren’t sure how it would go – would it be successful or totally ignored?

The answer came quickly when we received about 3,000 submissions in the first 24 hours. In total, more than 17,000 traffic safety messages have been entered over the years and nine have been voted winners by the public. The competition is steep, but you’re much more likely to win this contest – about 1 in 1,889 entries is a winner – than the lottery.

What we like most about the contest is the public engagement it generates. We truly enjoy seeing the ideas people come up with and hope they continue these traffic safety-themed conversations with their families, friends and coworkers.

We also fill with pride when other states use Arizona’s winning messages on their own message boards – Iowa DOT used one of our first winning messages last summer.

Here’s a look at the past winners in our Safety Message Contest.