The goal of National Passenger Safety Week (Jan. 19-23) is to promote safe driving practices and prevent unsafe ones by empowering passengers to speak up when their lives are in danger due to a reckless driver. Put simply, it's about being a backseat driver. There's nothing wrong with that if lives are stake, and sometimes that's the case if a driver is impaired, speeding, or even using their phone and not focusing on the task at hand -- driving.
We Save Lives and the National Road Safety Foundation launched the
National Passenger Safety Campaign, bringing together more than 60 organizations that focus on the passenger and not just the driver. In 2023, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) added the campaign to their national calendar and now it's an ongoing event every January.
The foundations suggests you speak up if you're riding in a vehicle and you don't feel safe because the driver may be:
- Texting or using their phone when driving
- Under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Driving too fast
- Tailgating
- Driving while tired
Speak up how? By signing their pledge, "Courage to Intervene Promise," which reads:
I will stop my friends and loved ones from driving drugged, drunk, or distracted whenever possible.
I will not ride with anyone who is drugged, drunk, or distracted.
I will encourage others to do the same.
I will have the Courage to Intervene
Because I care.
The National Passenger Safety Toolkit can help you start your own campaign to alert and educate passengers on how to speak up. You can
download items individually or the entire toolkit here.