Police ramp up education for rural teens ahead of deadliest time on Utah roads

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah Highway Patrol is been preparing for the “100 Deadliest Days” on Utah roads through a campaign addressing rural teenagers.

The “100 Deadliest Days” is a period of time between Memorial Day and Labor Day, named as such because of the annual spike in road fatalities.

Last year, UHP officials were encouraged that there would be fewer fatalities than usual during the 100-day period but said Utah ultimately had a “rough summer” with 101 people dying, an increase from 81 the previous year.

In an effort to prevent this from repeating, UHP launched the “Before the 100 Deadliest Days” initiative roughly a week before Memorial Day. The initiative is intended to increase safety awareness, specifically through educating teenagers in rural Utah.

“This effort combines proactive education for rural teen drivers, increased seat belt enforcement, and distracted driving laws,” the press release reads.

UHP troopers will be at local high schools joining morning announcements, interacting with students, and partnering with rural media outlets. Troopers will also ramp up their enforcement of seat belt and distracted driving laws.

Part of the education portion of the campaign includes information and statistics on distracted driving. UHP said 27% of all distracted driver fatal collisions involve a phone, and the demographic with the highest distracted driving crashes is drivers ages 15 to 29 years old.

The campaign will focus on Sanpete, Sevier, Wayne, Piute, and Garfield Counties, according to the press release.