MyCarDoesWhat, a vehicle education safety initiative from the National Safety Council and the University of Iowa, received a Platinum PR Award for PSA at the 2016 PR News Platinum Awards ceremony held in New York City. The Platinum PR Awards recognize the year's most outstanding communicators, initiatives and organizations in the competitive PR arena.

The MyCarDoesWhat PSA is an engaging animated video that educates drivers about the importance of understanding their vehicle's safety technologies and how to use those safety features correctly. The PSA appeared on channels including Lifetime, the History Channel and A&E and has garnered nearly 200,000 views on YouTube.

"We are honored to receive a Platinum PR Award for the MyCarDoesWhat campaign," said Alex Epstein, senior director, digital strategy and content at the National Safety Council. "The PSA for MyCarDoesWhat illustrates the power of a vehicle's safety technologies. Most importantly, it demonstrates that the driver is still a car's best safety feature."

"Today's vehicles offer drivers more assistance and safety features than ever before," said Prof. Daniel McGehee, director of the National Advanced Driving Simulator at the University of Iowa and the principal investigator of MyCarDoesWhat. "It is critical that drivers understand how to use these technologies. In addition to the PSA, MyCarDoesWhat offers tips, videos and other resources to help educate drivers about the use of these technologies to keep them and their passengers safe on the roads."

The National Safety Council and the University of Iowa partnered in 2015 to launch MyCarDoesWhat to educate the public on how to best interact with vehicle safety features to have better, safer driving experiences.

The MyCarDoesWhat campaign was also honored this year with a Thoth Award Certificate of Excellence for Public Service and a North American Excellence Award.

The campaign's website, MyCarDoesWhat.org, includes educational videos and other information about a variety of safety technologies including back-up cameras, blind spot monitoring systems, forward collision warning and other collision avoidance systems that help drivers.

For more information visit MyCarDoesWhat.org and follow MyCarDoesWhat on Twitter and Facebook.

Founded in 1913 and chartered by Congress, the National Safety Council, nsc.org, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to save lives by preventing injuries and deaths at work, in homes and communities, and on the road through leadership, research, education and advocacy. NSC advances this mission by partnering with businesses, government agencies, elected officials and the public in areas where we can make the most impact – distracted driving, teen driving, workplace safety, prescription drug overdoses and Safe Communities.

The National Advanced Driving Simulator and the Transportation & Vehicle Safety Research Program at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center works to improve technology design through a better understanding of how drivers perform and behave in crash situations. Their research-driven program works at the intersection of safety technology and public policy. The program's areas of research include: human factors and human behavior, advanced in-vehicle safety technologies, driver distraction, teen driving, crash analysis and automated vehicle policy.