North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey will make a series of first pitches at minor league baseball games in the next week to promote and bring greater public attention to Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
April has been proclaimed as Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Commissioner Causey is joining the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, other insurance commissioners and safety advocates across the nation to urge motorists to focus and keep distractions at bay when they get behind the wheel.
“Driving requires total concentration, and it’s very important drivers never take their ‘eye off the ball’ when they are behind the wheel,” Commissioner Causey said. “North Carolina’s roads are very busy during the summer, with families headed to the beach, park or out to the baseball games. We do not want any drivers to run ‘foul’ of the law by driving distracted.”
Earlier this month, Commissioner Causey offered a few tips to help drivers avoid the pitfalls of distracted driving:
- If you feel you really need to send a text, pull off the road and safely park before sending the text.
- Select a passenger as your “designated texter” to send and receive texts for you.
- Set your navigation system before you start driving. Do the same for your radio station.
- Don’t scroll through apps or social media while driving. If you feel tempted, you can turn your phone off, or put it in the glove box, back seat or trunk.
- Ask a ‘relief pitcher’ in the car to tend to the needs of children if the need arises. Ask your teammates in the car with you to help you stay focused and avoid distracted driving.
The commissioner’s road trip begins Friday night in Fayetteville at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 29, and continues in Greensboro and Winston-Salem next week.
The media is invited to attend and cover these appearances, which are being promoted and in coordination with the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina, Inc.
To help promote these appearances, NCDOI is releasing a special digital baseball card on Friday on its social media channels. To view the card, visit NCDOI on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn on Friday.
Here is Commissioner Causey’s public schedule for Friday, April 29, and two other baseball first pitch appearances for Distracted Driver Awareness Month next week:
7 p.m., April 29 – Segra Stadium Kannapolis Cannon Ballers vs. Fayetteville Woodpeckers 460 Hay Street, Fayetteville, N.C. 28301 6:30 p.m., May 5 – First National Bank Field Asheville Tourists vs. Greensboro Grasshoppers 408 Bellemeade Street, Greensboro, N.C. 27401 7 p.m., May 7 – Truist Stadium Hickory Crawdads vs. Winston-Salem Dash 951 Ballpark Way, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101