Businesses are part of road safety whether they plan to be or not. Employees commute. Delivery drivers and field crews spend their days on Arizona roads. Restaurants and venues decide how evenings end for their guests. And local companies have something many safety campaigns lack: direct, trusted relationships with the people they want to reach.
That makes businesses some of the most effective partners in preventing wrong-way crashes. Here are practical ways to help, at almost any size.
Start with your own people
The simplest contribution costs nothing.
Share the core safety facts. Most drivers do not know what to do if they see a wrong-way driver. The guidance is short: slow down, steer away to the right when it is clear, get to a safe place, and call 911. A one-page handout, a mention at a team meeting, or a post in the break room can reach people who would never read a safety article.
Include it in driver training. If your business has employees who drive for work, add wrong-way awareness to onboarding: what DO NOT ENTER and WRONG WAY signs look like, why red reflectors facing you mean stop, and what to do if an employee realizes they have made a wrong turn onto a ramp.
Back sober choices at company events. Holiday parties, team outings, and client dinners often involve alcohol. Plan the ride home along with the menu. Some companies provide rideshare credits or arrange transportation for events. ADOT's wrong-way driving page states that two out of three wrong-way crashes are caused by impaired drivers, so this is one of the most direct steps an employer can take.
Respect night and early-shift realities. ADOT reports that three out of four wrong-way crashes occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Employees who commute in those hours benefit most from awareness, and from schedules that do not push people to drive while exhausted.
Hospitality businesses have a special role
Bars, restaurants, venues, and event organizers are often the last stop before someone gets behind the wheel.
Visible rideshare pickup areas, promotions for designated drivers, staff who feel supported in offering to call a ride, and messaging near the exit all help. These are small operational choices that can change what happens at the end of the night.
Sponsor awareness work
Awareness campaigns cost money to design, print, and distribute, and they work best when they come from sources people recognize.
Businesses can help by:
- Sponsoring materials such as flyers, posters, or social media campaigns tied to seasonal risks like holidays, game days, and visitor season.
- Hosting a talk or table at a company event, community fair, or customer appreciation day.
- Sharing safety content through newsletters, social channels, and email lists that already reach thousands of local drivers.
- Matching employee donations to road safety organizations.
Support technology that has to keep running
Safety technology has a familiar weakness: it is often funded to launch and then left without support to operate. Detection systems need maintenance. Software needs servers, updates, and people to keep it reliable.
NMWWD is rebuilding its "Keep Our Streets Safe" wrong-way alert app from the ground up, with durability as a requirement. It is not available yet. Business sponsorship is one of the clearest ways to make sure the rebuilt version, when it launches, can stay running for years rather than months.
Companies with technical staff can also help directly. We are interested in hearing from developers, engineers, and others who want to contribute skills to the rebuild.
Why this matters to us
NMWWD was founded in Phoenix by Nino Mihilli, a local entrepreneur, and that background shapes how we think about this work: businesses are not just funders. They are communities of drivers, and they can reach people in ways that public campaigns often cannot.
Getting started
You do not need a formal program to begin. Share the move-right rule with your team this week. Plan sober rides for your next company event. Ask whether your business could sponsor a seasonal safety message.
If you are interested in a partnership, sponsorship, or volunteering, we would like to hear from you. Visit our Get Involved page, support the work directly, or reach us at nmwwd@t47group.com.
Sources: Arizona Department of Transportation — Wrong-Way Drivers