Campaign: Utah Teen Driving Safety
Winner: AAA of Northern California, Nevada and Utah
The best way to make young drivers into safe drivers is to give them the best driver training possible and keep their parents involved, says the AAA of Northern
California, Nevada and Utah, which supported development of a stronger Graduated Drivers License law. So, when the Department of Public Safety in Utah found that teen
drivers - although they made up only 7.7% of the driving population in that state - are involved in 27.6% of all crashes and 16.2% of fatal crashes, they were determined to
find ways to better educate both teens and their parents about keeping the roads safe.
Largely a rural state, Utah has traditionally opposed stringent teen driving laws because they felt it made it more difficult for children to travel between towns and
help out with farm chores. Existing laws were not enforced, and teen drivers often wrote their own notes requesting official exemptions for themselves. AAA Utah
spokesperson and lobbyist Rolayne Fairclough used the auto club's clout and history to support stronger legislation and form lobbying partnerships with the Utah PTA,
Coalition for Utah Traffic Safety, SafeKids, Utah Highway Patrol, and insurance lobbying organizations, to pass a bill making it easier to understand and enforce existing
GDL laws.
Once the law was passed, Utah's first lady attended a press conference to emphasize the importance of parents' involvement in monitoring teen driving. AAA sponsored a
DriverZED interactive teen driver training DVD-ROM and provided free copies to every high school in the state.
Media interviews stressed the dangers of a trend in teen street racing, and a "Deadliest Days on the Road" press release warned teens and their parents that more teens
die during the summer months, especially near prom and graduation season, than at any other time of the year. Other press releases explained the new GDL measures, and
156,000 brochures were distributed at local AAA and department of motor vehicle offices.
Legislation passed to strengthen Utah's GDL law in May 2006, and 119 news media stories appeared in Utah between August 2005 and August 2006 featuring AAA support of
safe teen driving. More than 5,321,891 media impressions were created for a $115,991 media ad value equivalency.
Honorable Mentions - Advocacy
The American Foundation for the Blind and dawson| duncan Communications' National Campaign for Literacy, Textbooks, Transcribers and Technology lobbied for laws
to support transcribing Braille textbooks as a career. More than 1,000 people called the AFB asking how to become Braille textbook transcribers.
AARP Tennessee lobbied the state to boost funding for alternative long-term care choices for the elderly. The "Choices for Care" campaign overcame many hurdles to pass a
Choices for Care resolution and focus grassroots support. More than 100 media hits were generated, and the administration committed to an ongoing effort to address long-
term care.
The National Association of Children's Hospitals sponsored its second "Family Advocacy Day," a grassroots lobbying effort that brings child patients and their parents to
Capitol Hill to push for funding from Congress. The 33 families that participated helped create 3.1 million media impressions.
After the 2005 hurricane season dispersed millions of Louisiana residents, an anticipated low voter turnout threatened local elections. The United States Postal Service
took on the crucial role of spreading the word and delivering absentee ballots on time, mailing and processing 15,000 absentee ballots. Thanks to the "New Orleans Absentee
Ballot Initiative," 14,999 ballots were counted.