The City of Turin has launched a road safety campaign to raise awareness among young people about the consequences of getting behind the wheel after consuming alcohol or drugs.
"Text me when you get home": how many times have we said or written this phrase to a child, a friend, or someone we love, to make sure they got home safe and sound after a car journey? This phrase has become the claim of a road safety campaign launched by the City and Local Police Corps of Turin as part of a Mobilità sicura project for young people realised in collaboration with the Department of Policies against Drugs and Other Dependencies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the National Association of Italian Municipalities (Anci) and the Union of Italian Provinces (Upi).
The programme, which began in June 2025 and is scheduled to run until October 2026, encompasses both communication, training and prevention activities, as well as enforcement measures. The campaign's specific focus is the use of alcohol and drugs or psychotropic substances, with the aim of prompting secondary school students and university students to reflect on how getting behind the wheel in an altered psychophysical state can be extremely dangerous for themselves and others.
The campaign unfolds across the social media accounts of the City of Turin, particularly TikTok and Instagram, in order to reach as many young people as possible. The temporary channel @scrivimi.quando.arrivi has been created, where — among other content — videos by content creator Francesco Oliva, known by the pseudonym Foliva, a Turin-based digital artist highly popular among young people, are published. The message also features on the city's public transport and in informational materials distributed in nightlife venues and student meeting places such as university libraries.
"Our strategic objective is clear and ambitious: to drastically reduce road accident rates and make a concrete contribution to the European and national goal of halving the number of fatalities and serious injuries by 2030 – declared Turin's Councillor for Security Marco Porcedda – To achieve this result, we are already acting firmly to counter the most dangerous driving behaviours, starting with psychophysical impairment caused by the use of alcohol and narcotic substances. Thanks to funding from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the collaboration with ANCI and the University of Turin, we have put in place an integrated plan that combines targeted enforcement operations on the ground by the Local Police with widespread prevention and road safety education initiatives for young people. Road safety is not only an institutional duty, but a civic challenge that requires the collaboration of the entire community".
On the prevention front, during the school year Local Police officers held a series of meetings with secondary school students alongside experts from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Turin, to explain how substances such as alcohol and drugs affect driving ability, and demonstrations were carried out using breathalysers and pre-screening drug tests. In addition to prevention, the project includes, through to the autumn, targeted enforcement operations across the territory, particularly during night-time hours and at weekends.