Indiana marked Buckle Up Phone Down Day on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, with Governor Mike Braun, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and the Indiana State Police jointly challenging Hoosiers to do two simple things on every trip — buckle up and put the phone down — whether they are driving or riding as a passenger. Indiana joined more than 35 states taking part in the national movement this year, and Governor Braun recorded a short video message backing the challenge.
Source: Boone County Daily News (INDOT/ISP announcement)
The message is aimed at the two behaviours Indiana's own crash data keeps flagging. Just over 800 people died on Indiana roadways last year, state officials said. Since 2021, the majority of fatal crashes in Indiana have involved an unbelted driver or passenger, and driver inattention remains one of the state's stubbornest crash causes despite a hands-free law that has been in force since 2020.
What state officials said
"Last year, just over 800 people died on Indiana roadways," said INDOT Commissioner Lyndsay Quist. "Despite a slight decline in fatalities, INDOT continues to focus on enhancing roadway safety through systemic roadway improvements, but we can't solve this problem on our own. We ask that all Hoosier drivers and their passengers do their part by making smart decisions. Wearing seatbelts and avoiding distractions, like cell phones and mobile devices are two easy, yet impactful, choices."
For the State Police, the day is about enforcement with a stated purpose. "Ensuring safety on our roadways is a shared responsibility, and it starts with two of the simplest actions a driver can take: buckling up and putting the phone away," said Captain Ron Galaviz, Chief Public Information Officer for the Indiana State Police. "Our troopers are actively enforcing seatbelt and hands-free laws not to issue citations, but to save lives." Wearing a seatbelt and putting phones away, officials said, are two of the most important actions drivers and passengers can take to prevent crashes — or to survive one if it occurs.
The numbers behind the campaign
INDOT's Buckle Up Phone Down guidance, published on the state's official in.gov site, explains why these two habits top the list. Buckling up in the front seat of a passenger car reduces the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent and of moderate or critical injury by 50 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) figures INDOT cites. On distraction, INDOT says more than 7,000 crashes related to distracted driving and mobile devices occurred in Indiana in 2022 alone, and cites AAA reporting that texting increases the chances of a car crash by 50 percent. The state's fuller count is grimmer still: in 2023, just over 9,500 collisions were reported to involve distracted driving or cellphone use, even though Indiana's Hands-Free Law — which bars drivers from holding a phone behind the wheel — had already been in effect for three years.
INDOT asks every driver and passenger to take the Buckle Up Phone Down pledge — "Every trip. Every time." — and to spread it with the hashtag #BUPDIN. This is Indiana's third year in the movement, which the Missouri Department of Transportation launched in 2017.
Why this matters beyond Indiana
Indiana calls itself the Crossroads of America, and its interstates carry some of the heaviest through-truck traffic in the Midwest — traffic that includes a large number of Punjabi truck drivers running long-haul routes through the state. For professional drivers, the two habits in this campaign are also federal workplace realities: seatbelt use and hands-free rules are enforced on commercial drivers as well as car drivers, and a distracted-driving crash involving a heavy truck is rarely a minor event for anyone involved. A statewide day that pairs public messaging with active trooper enforcement is a practical reminder, ahead of the busy Halloween and holiday travel period, that the cheapest safety device in any cab is already installed — the belt — and the most dangerous one is the phone in the driver's hand.
What happens next
The awareness day itself is one day, but the enforcement it publicises is not: Indiana State Police troopers continue enforcing seatbelt and hands-free laws year-round, and INDOT is continuing its programme of systemic roadway improvements alongside the campaign. Drivers can take the individual pledge through INDOT's Buckle Up Phone Down pages on in.gov, and the state is asking residents to follow INDOT, the State Police and other state transportation departments on social media to take part. The test of the campaign will be in next year's numbers: officials are openly measuring it against the figure they led with this year — just over 800 lives lost on Indiana roads.