ABINGTON, PA — The Montgomery County Health Department (MCHD) in artnership with the County Commissioners, District Attorney’s Office, PennDOT, Abington Memorial Hospital, and Abington Police Department will hold a kick off for a year long Distracted Driving Awareness and Prevention Campaign on Wednesday.
This year, the Montgomery County Health Department is committed to community outreach efforts that will reduce distracted driving behaviors, which are preventable driving risk factors. MCHD has adopted the AT&T “It Can Wait” Distracted Driving Awareness and Prevention Campaign which consists of many different focus areas, including community events, health fairs, high school and corporate outreach, as well as involvement in the online and digital communities. The campaign’s first event is a kick off press conference with key partners in this initiative. MCHD encourages everyone to go online to www.itcanwait.com and take the pledge not to text and drive. In Montgomery County, motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause of injury and death in people ages 15-25 years of age. There were 1,224 crashes attributed to distracted driving in Montgomery County in 2012. Of those crashes, five were fatal and 614 resulted in injury. One of those five fatal crashes involved a teenager. Also in 2012, State Route 63 and State Route 73 had the highest number of distracted driving crashes.
The Montgomery County Health Department’s Community Traffic Safety Project is focused on safety programming regarding seat belt usage, school bus safety and etiquette, teen driving, impaired driving, and pedestrian safety, which are available to all schools in Montgomery County. In addition, other educational opportunities are available through MCHD covering topics such as child passenger safety, aggressive driving, vehicle safety for seniors, bicycle and motorcycle safety. All of these programs are provided to the community free of charge through
a funding initiative from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.