Passengers have a big role to play in helping reduce a motorist’s risk of being involved in a car accident. Passengers who speak up when the driver of their car is driving at excessive speeds or texting while driving can reduce their risk of being involved in a possibly serious auto accident.
That message is being put out to passengers by two traffic safety organizations called We Save Lives and the National Road Safety Foundation. Both of these organizations launched the National Passenger Safety Week initiative last year, and this year, the special commemoration was marked between January 22 and January 29.
According to these two groups, it is important for passengers to understand that they play a huge role in their own safety, even if they are not the ones behind the wheel. Statistics show that passengers have enough incentive to speak up when they see the driver of their car engaging in dangerous driving behaviors. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, as many as a quarter of all car accident wrongful deaths in the United States every year are passengers.