WHAT: Distracted Driving Awareness Month Press Conference

WHEN: Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE: Vermont State Police Westminster Barracks, 1330 Westminster Heights Road, Westminster

DETAILS:

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Vermont Agency of Transportation’s State Highway Safety Office (SHSO), and Vermont highway safety advocates are launching a high-visibility enforcement effort from April 10-14, 2025, to deter distracted driving. Law enforcement officers nationwide will work together to enforce laws regarding texting and distracted driving, and to remind people to drive with their full attention.

To support this effort, the SHSO will hold a Distracted Driving Awareness Press Conference with representatives from the SHSO, Vermont State Police and other Vermont and New Hampshire law enforcement agencies, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the American Automobile Association (AAA), and the cellular service carrier AT&T. The goal of the press conference is to bring together public and private stakeholders who dedicate their work to keeping Vermont’s roads safer for all road users and to raise awareness about the risks of distracted driving.

According to NHTSA, in 2022, 3,308 people were killed and an estimated additional 289,310 people injured in traffic crashes involving distracted drivers. Due to data collection limitations, however, we know that these are underestimations. In Vermont, during the past five years (2020-2024), there have been 33 fatalities attributed to distracted driving, which means that 9.6% of all vehicle-related fatalities in Vermont involved a distracted driver.