ADOT’s Safety Message Contest returns

PHOENIX – Are you punny? A connoisseur of dad jokes? Is snark a second language? Maybe you’re simply serious about traffic safety?

If so, we want you to put your skills to good use and encourage safe driving by entering the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Safety Message Contest. Back for the second year in a row, safety messages can be submitted at azdot.gov/signcontest through Feb. 26.

Contestants have plenty to live up to after last year’s contest generated nearly 7,000 entries.

“The public’s response to our first Safety Message Contest was incredible,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “The messages ran the gamut from creative and funny to heartfelt and serious. We loved seeing that because it tells us that people are engaged with changing driver behavior and making safer the roads we travel every day.”

ADOT displays quirky traffic safety messages, which often are related to current events and pop culture, as part of an effort to encourage drivers to change their actions behind the wheel. More than 90 percent of vehicle crashes are caused by driver decisions, such as speeding, driving aggressively, distracted or impaired.

When creating your messages – there’s no limit to the number you can submit – remember these guidelines:

• The message must relate to traffic safety.
• Signs accommodate three lines and 18 characters, including spaces, per line.
• #Hashtags, phone numbers and website addresses are not allowed.
• No emoji ☹.

After entries have been submitted, ADOT will select 15 finalists. The public will then vote for their favorites and the two messages that receive the most votes will appear on overhead signs above Arizona state highways.