Through a series of billboards erected across the state, 21st Century Insurance’s new “Just Drive” campaign is encouraging people to hang up their phones, put down their donuts and put on their makeup later. Billboard displays will show cartoon drivers with headlines that read: “World’s Deadliest Office,” “World’s Riskiest Restaurant.” Other boards will skewer drivers who read, shave or apply makeup while driving. The campaign was prompted by a recent study commissioned by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which found that drivers using cellular phones have a fourfold increase in crash likelihood. “This isn’t intuitive. You’d think using a hands-free phone would be less distracting, so it wouldn’t increase crash risk as much as using a hand-held phone. But we found that either phone type increased the risk,” said Anne McCartt, IIHS Vice President for Research and author of the study. 21st Century, which insures over 1.5 million vehicles in California and eight other states, will be placing boards at select locations from Sacramento to San Diego.
