AASHTO Journal - MassDOT Names Student Winners of Safety PSA Contest

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Fundación MAPFRE – a non-profit founded by global insurance firm MAPFRE – said a student team from Natick High School won the 2024 Look Both Ways Road Safety PSA Contest. Students from Bishop Feehan and Northbridge High Schools were also selected as finalists in this annual competition.

[Above photo MassDOT] 

This yearly event invites high school students from across the state to create a script for a public service announcement or PSA about road safety. The winning students Natick High School worked with an advertising agency to produce their PSA (seen below), with the school also receiving $3,000 for road safety education, provided by Fundación MAPFRE.  

“This year, MassDOT and MAPFRE received a number of creative submissions from high school students that underscored the importance of road safety,” said Monica Tibbits-Nutt, MassDOT secretary and CEO, in a statement.

“Public education is an important piece of MassDOT’s Vision Zero, and we are grateful for all of the work students are doing to promote safe habits amongst the next generation of roadway users,” she added.

“This competition is a unique way of conveying the importance of road safety, especially to younger drivers,” said Jaime Tamayo, the chief representative of Fundación MAPFRE in the U.S. and CEO of MAPFRE USA. “Through the creativity of their peers, a strong message is sent to embrace safe driving habits and make the roads safer for everyone.” 

The “Look Both Ways” program aims to eliminate road-related fatalities and serious injury through efforts like the PSA contest. The program also created an interactive station that uses a virtual reality driving simulation experience and the React Challenge, a mobile game that tests students’ safe driving ability when faced with distractions behind the wheel, MassDOT said.

According to the Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan, roadway deaths in Massachusetts reached a 14-year high in 2021 and have been increasing year-over-year since 2019.

Massachusetts experienced 418 traffic fatalities in 2021, compared to 343 in 2020 and 336 in 2019, with people walking and biking accounting for almost 22 percent of deaths on the roadways statewide over the last five years, the agency said.  