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Case Study

Nevada Zero Fatalities


Don’t Kill a Dream

JMC 5950

Elliot Malin
Summer 2019
CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

Situational Analysis

The Nevada Zero Fatalities initiative is a joint effort by the Department of Public Safety

(DPS) and the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) aimed at increasing pedestrian and

driver awareness about the hazards associated with the roads. These range from utilizing

seatbelts, awareness about impaired driving, focusing on the road, recognizing and stopping at

red lights, being aware of pedestrians, and giving motorcyclists space on the road.

Specifically, this will be looking at the “don’t kill a dream” sub-campaign that the Zero

Fatalities coalition has started. Between January 1 and May 31 of 2018 there were 130 fatalities

associated with our roads. This year between the same time frame there have been 108 fatalities.

(www.zerofatalitiesnv.com, 2019) While it is impossible to stop all fatalities, it is possible with

enough public awareness to potentially lower or mitigate the risks associated with the roads. This

sub-campaign specifically aims at lowering the number of drivers under the influence on the

roadways in order to reduce fatalities.

For about a decade Nevada had the deadliest roads in the nation when looking at drunk

drivers with over 1,025 killed in car accidents in that time frame. (Desert Hope, 2019) The

campaign aimed at reducing that amount and saving lives on our roads.

Research

The Zero Fatalities campaign has pushed a broad message to enhance public safety

awareness to all that interact with the Nevada roadways. Through secondary research, it has been

uncovered that this was not the first attempt by the various agencies to tackle this difficult issue.

While the organizations have rebranded their campaign and aimed at narrowing their messaging

to five key points: Always Buckle Up, Don’t Drive Impaired. Focus on the Road, Stop on Red,

Be Pedestrian Safe, and Ride Safe. (www.zerofatalitiesnv.com)

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CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

With DPS and NDOT joining forces for this initiative they have partnered with private

companies to enhance awareness and offer rides at discounted rates or even free during holiday

and other events with heavy consumption of alcohol. The Zero Fatalities partnership was formed

as a means to push a strategic communications plan aimed at educating the public about the

dangers of the road. While this isn’t aimed at a specific incident, it is attempting to target fatal

incidents on our roadways in order to save lives. The initiative was started in 2011 to build off of

the Nevada Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

“The new Zero Fatalities goal is part of a revamped Nevada Strategic Highway Safety
Plan. The plan developed in 2006 by more than 75 Nevada traffic and safety experts,
identifies five Nevada-specific focus areas… The Nevada safety plan was updated in
2010 with additional life-saving strategies to help reach the new Zero Fatalities goal.”
(Nevada Department of Transportation, 2011)

By rebranding the campaign, they were able to refocus the efforts in order to try and hone their

message to help communicate key points instead of the overly broad campaign from 2006.

Due to this being a long-term and ongoing campaign based on lowering the amount of

people killed on and around Nevada’s roads every year it is important to examine the amount of

people killed and if there has been a decrease each year. Through their partnerships with various

entities it can be seen that their ultimate goal across the various platforms has been to showcase

how many people die a year, and how to avoid potentially fatal actions on and around the roads.

Over the past year the campaign has started a sub-campaign titled “don’t kill a dream” in

order to catch the attention of motorists to not drive impaired, to slow down, and to fulfill their

dreams by staying alive. “More people died in Nevada due to drunk drivers than in the rest of the

nation. Out of every 100,000 residents in the state, 3.3 people died due to a drunk driver,

compared to 2.8 people out of every 100,000 nationally.” (Desert Hope Treatment, 2019)

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CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

Action

Due to this being a long-term and ongoing campaign the action plan is centered around

public awareness. From billboards, to engaging the press, to even teaming up with private

companies such as Lyft to offer opportunities to engage the public. Generally, the

communications strategy of Zero Fatalities has been to communicate how people have died on

Nevada’s roads and how to save yourself from the same fate. Their overall message was about

staying alive and not killing a dream. From getting married, to travel experiences, and even life

experiences as a whole. The target audience for this campaign are all travelers on Nevada’s

roadways.

The campaign is aiming to “shift the conversation to one that is personal, relatable and

ownable, encouraging participation to work together to save lives.” (Zero Fatalities, 2019) They

strategy behind this campaign is to use a “hybrid approach of traditional tactics such as media,

PR and social media, layered with experiential crashed vehicle installations across the state.

There will also be an influencer component to further engage Nevadans, inspire change and

spark conversation.” (Zero Fatalities, 2019)

The Don’t Kill the Dream sub-campaign was announced in October of last year: “The

Nevada Department of Public Safety rolled out a new awareness campaign in October. The

campaign focuses on ending impaired driving throughout Nevada with the idea stemming from

the Safety Zero Fatalities Program.” (Pattillo, 2018) At the end of 2018 the campaign utilized

various billboards to help people realize the perils of driving under the influence. These

references were often designed to use tactics such as stating things such as “Tonight I’m going to

ask her to marry m…. don’t drive impaired, don’t kill a dream.” (Zero Fatalities, 2018)

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CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

Other mediums the campaign has utilized have been short commercials that fell in line

with their billboard campaign about killing dreams. One being: “We have never been to

Tahoe…. Last year 311 of us were killed on Nevada roadways. Watch out for one another.

Drivers. Pedestrians. Don’t kill a dream.” From this commercial they also put out posters with

the same messaging throughout Washoe County specifically due to its proximity to Lake Tahoe.

Further actions have been to utilize companies such as Lyft to offer free rides and raise

public awareness about the campaign. “Zero Fatalities is expanding its partnership with Lyft by

teaming up with local businesses and organizations dedicated to eliminating fatalities caused by

impaired driving in Northern Nevada. Lyft will pledge an unprecedented $50,000 in free ride

credits…” (Zero Fatalities, 2019) Further, Lyft published their own release: “In 2018, Lyft joined

forces with 12 other local entities to form the Las Vegas Coalition for Zero Fatalities. This

unprecedented, public-private partnership made waves and headlines, first by helping curb DUIs

in the area.” (Lyft, 2019)

The Zero Fatalities website also measures the annual amount of roadway deaths as a live

tracker to show how people the statistics, but to also measure success and failure rates of their

campaign.

Communication

There were quite a few tactics used to strategically communicate this campaign to the

public. From public service announcements via television commercials (done by NASCAR

driver Brendan Guaghan), social media campaigns, to billboards, sidewalk clings, wrecked

vehicles at various campuses across Nevada, and even radio spots. The messaging for this

campaign was serious utilizing red colors as well as using visualizations of cutting off the end of

the words. This conveys to the viewer an abrupt end and is an effective tool for this campaign.

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CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

The campaign communicated statistics of how many people died on the roads through the

various mediums used for the different types of deaths on the roads – from distracted driving to

impaired driving. By showing these statistics they attempted to create a tie to the individual

dream that each of them lost. Thus, falling in line with the overarching message of the campaign:

don’t kill a dream.

Examples:

Last year, 311 of us were killed on


Nevada roadways. And with each one,
a dream died too. Drivers. Pedestrians.
Watch out for each other.
Don’t kill a dream.

Paid for by RTC Washoe and the Departments of Public Safety and Transportation

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Photos courtesy of: https://zerofatalitiesnv.com/downloads/vision-zero-truckee-meadows/


CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

Photo courtesy of: @DriveSafeNV on Twitter (Zero Fatalities Nevada official Twitter)

The don’t kill a dream campaign as mentioned utilized a hybrid approach in order to

stimulate conversation about the dangers of speeding, impaired driving, and what that means to

you and your family. From using very serious graphics and exhibits they have been able to

showcase the sad realities of how one’s life can end by not staying safe on the road – or how they

can end someone else’s life.

Evaluation and Recommendations

One of the few present evaluation methods available currently is through the Zero

Fatalities website, which shows numbers of death on the Nevada roads from last year compared

to this year. From that it can be seen that in 2018 there were 130 deaths on the roads between

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CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

January 1 and May 31, and this year there have been 103 deaths within the same timeframe.

(Zero Fatalities, 2019) This equals to about a 20% decrease in roadway fatalities.

Due to this being a long-term campaign there aren’t many other measurable goals

announced by the coalition. However, some recommendations can be made in order to improve

the campaign for the future. Off the bat the coalition can do more public events such as the ones

held at the universities across the state with wrecked vehicles. That shock value is very useful for

not just college students but also families.

One thing that they could be doing is improving the campaigns social presence by

infusing it into the campaign from events and getting people to interact with the different

accounts to tracking how many people open their content and from there do something with the

content. It would be helpful to know what the interactions looked like and what the traffic across

the various platforms to help determine a measurable amount of success.

Another opportunity to improve this campaign would be to play a commercial with the

copywriting around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day on children’s television stations about

parents returning home to their children, and not letting their dreams end. By creating this it

could create an opportunity for parents and families to have greater conversations about the

safety of the road and ensuring that they don’t drive impaired or distracted.

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CASE STUDY: NEVADA ZERO FATALITIES, MALIN

Bibliography

“Zero Fatalities Traffic Safety Goal Launched to Save Lives in Nevada.” Nevada Department of
Public Safety, 5 May 2011.

“The Road To Zero Fatalities.” Zero Fatalities Nevada Website, Nevada Department of
Transportation , zerofatalitiesnv.com/.

“Drunk Driving in Nevada | Statistics.” Desert Hope, Desert Hope American Addiction Centers,
3 June 2019, deserthopetreatment.com/alcohol-abuse/drunk-driving/.

account, Zero Fatalities NVVerified. “Zero Fatalities NV (@DriveSafeNV).” Twitter, Twitter, 23


Apr. 2019, twitter.com/drivesafenv?lang=en.

Pattillo, Alicia. “New Campaign in Nevada Highlights Impact of Intoxicated Driving.” KTNV, 4
Dec. 2018, www.ktnv.com/new-campaign-highlights-the-impact-of-intoxicated-driving.

Wetzel, Lynn. “News & Events.” Zero Fatalities Nevada Website, 2019,
zerofatalitiesnv.com/zero-fatalities-expands-partnership-with-lyft/.

Westhagen, Amy. “Las Vegas Coalition for Zero Fatalities Is Doubling Down in 2019.” Lyft
Blog, Lyft Blog, 28 Jan. 2019, blog.lyft.com/posts/2019/1/24/las-vegas-coalition-for-
zero-fatalities-is-doubling-down-in-2019.

Seeman, Matthew. “NASCAR Driver Brendan Gaughan Reminds Drivers to 'Slow Down, Don't
Kill a Dream'.” KSNV, KSNV, 22 May 2019, news3lv.com/news/videos/nascar-driver-
brendan-gaughan-reminds-drivers-to-slow-down-dont-kill-a-dream.

Thomas, Kelsey. “'Don't Kill a Dream': New Billboards Drive Home Realities of Drunk
Driving.” KSNV, KSNV, 31 Oct. 2018, news3lv.com/news/local/dont-kill-a-dream-new-
billboards-drive-home-realities-of-drunk-driving.

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